


Personastuck: Arena

by Unionhack



Series: Personastuck Series [2]
Category: Homestuck, Persona Series, Shin Megami Tensei Series
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multi, Tournaments, Ultimate Fighting Championship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-02-15 17:52:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2238054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unionhack/pseuds/Unionhack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Several months after saving humanity using the power of their Personas, Dave Strider and his friends John, Rose, and Jade are on their way to Japan to be officially inducted into the paranormal investigation unit known only as the Shadow Operatives. Along the way, however, they find themselves trapped in the realm of the Velvet Room and faced with a new challenge; take on each other and their former comrades in a fighting tournament taking place on the massive 'Velvet Tower', where the winner is granted a wish of their choosing!</p><p>However, dark forces, as always, are behind the orchestrators of the tournament. It's up to Dave and the other Persona users to solve the mystery of the Velvet Tower and prevent the destruction of humanity once more.</p><p>(Sequel to Shin Megami Tensei: Personastuck.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Masquerade Begins

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, Unionhack here and back with a sequel to Personastuck (which people seemed to really like after all!). If you haven't read Shin Megami Tensei: Personastuck, then I highly suggest going on my profile and checking it out; this is a sequel after all, and it'd help to know what the original story was about. 
> 
> If you've read the original, then I hope you enjoy this story just as much!

He hadn’t seen anything like it in his entire life. A city skyline from the twentieth floor of a hotel, with nothing but the metal bars of a balcony separating him from the stunning view. The ocean provided the perfect backdrop, with only the moon in the night sky and the lights off of the buildings reflecting off of its’ surface.

For seventeen year old John Egbert, it was almost overwhelming. A mere few months ago he had been living the simple life of a student, not sure what he was going to do with his life. Today, however, he was staying in one of New York’s finest hotels, paid for by the indescribably wealthy Kirijo Group of Japan. 

For the hotel staff and people not-in-the-know, John and his friends were on a trip paid for by far-off wealthy relatives. To John Egbert, Dave Strider, Jade Harley, and Rose Lalonde, this was their last stop before taking a plane to Japan, where they would be officially inducted into the secret paranormal investigation group known as the Shadow Operatives. As witnesses to the supernatural, metaphysical phenomena known as Persona, they were of the few humans in the world who could command other facets of their personality to do battle with the insidious, repressed emotions of humanity.

It sounded insane to think about, but after having helped prevent the destruction of the world by the malefic ‘shadow’ known as Hemera, it made perfect sense to John. And as one of the only people in the world who knew of the significance of Personas and shadows, he knew it was his duty to protect the greater whole of humanity from those dark beings that would seek to destroy the world as they knew it.

That was the big picture, anyhow. To John, being a Shadow Operative was about spending time with his friends doing something only they could do; and that beat doing anything else.

“Dude, I knew these Kirijo people had money, but these digs are fucking ridiculous.” Dave commented as he leapt backwards, landing on an unimaginably plush bed. “I should have taken up kicking metaphorical ass years ago.”

Jade entered after Dave, yawning and gently lying face down on the bed next to Dave. “Beats running a silly blog, right?”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say that, Har.” Dave replied as he lazily kicked off his shoes. 

“It is rather nice, isn’t it?” Rose examined, closing the door behind her as she entered the room behind everyone. “They didn’t have to spend so lavishly on us, but... they did.”

John turned away from the balcony and shut the door leading out to it behind him, joining the rest of his friends in the spacious room. He took a look at the amenities, including two queen sized beds; this meant sleeping arrangements would be a little odd. Were Dave and Jade not dating, it would be simple as splitting things up on a sibling basis. As it were, however, Dave and Jade would be sharing a bed, and John would be left to awkwardly sleep in a sleeping bag or on a chair; woe be upon him should he ever try to claim the bed before Rose.

“So, what do you think we’ll be doing once we’re officially in the organization?” John inquired. He had no idea what to expect, other than the involvement of shadows and Personas. Of course, neither did anyone else, but the others (particularly Rose) usually had good guesses.

Rose tapped her chin as she stared out of the window from her seat on the bed. “I suppose we’ll be at their disposal to be sent to deal with future disturbances like ours.” She suggested. “One must wonder if we’ll be able to take on these challenges together as a unit, or if we’ll be split up...”

“Dude, no.” Dave answered confidently. “These people have dealt with the same shit as us, they know the only reason we didn’t get our asses kicked is because we relied on each other. They’ll keep us together, don’t worry.”

Jade smiled at Dave’s enthusiasm. “So? Do we just turn in for the night?”

“I can’t think of anything to do.” He answered, shrugging. “Not like the Kirijo group gave us any actual money, they just gave us the room.”

“TV, then?” John asked as he got up to poke around the rest of the room. 

Dave stretched and felt around a nightstand for the remote to the TV, eventually locating it and flicking on the television. The initial channel was a news channel for the local area, reporting little else other than local events and weather. Dave began to flip through the channels; sitcoms, game shows, a documentary on Edgar Allen Poe, sports; so many channels, yet nothing to watch.

John had decided to let Dave poke around while he checked out the rest of the hotel room. It was large; much bigger than the average one-room hotel, with one room containing the beds, and another containing a sofa, a table, a refrigerator, and a microwave. The décor was rather modern, with red being the standout color in the paintings and walls. John was about to turn around and return to the bedroom when something glimmered in the corner of his eye.

Looking to the far end of the room, John spotted a table with four objects lying upon it; upon closer inspection, they appeared to be masks, of the kind that were worn during masquerade balls. They were lined up in a straight row, face-up, and each bore a unique design.

The first was a golden mask, with two diamonds centered around the two eye slits; one diamond was blue while the other was purple. Two bells hung off the sides of the mask, much like those found on the hats of jesters. In addition, a feather adorned each side of the mask; one blue on the side of the purple diamond, and one purple on the side of the blue diamond. In the center of the mask above the nose was a blue symbol, resembling waves or a gust of wind; John couldn’t quite tell.

The second mask was also golden, designed with a wing motif so that each end of the mask resembled the wing of an eagle. The mask was adorned with cogs and gears, and sported a beak in place of a nose. A pair of red feathers hung off of one side of the mask. In the center, a red symbol resembling a gear was in place.

The third mask was made of a brilliant silver with green stripes, the top of it being adorned with fuzzy white fake ears like a dog’s. The mask was adorned with glitter and small stars, and in the center was a white spiral design. The spiral was almost difficult to see against the silver material of the mask, but it poked out ever so slightly to make it more visible. 

The fourth and final mask was a metallic black with white tendrils sprawling all over its face. The edges of the mask sported several ‘tentacles’, each of which pointed in a random direction, making the mask’s design rather chaotic. The center of the mask bore a yellow sun, with a ray of light beaming from the sun in each cardinal direction. 

John had no idea what the masks were for, but their arrangement made it rather clear that they were placed where they were deliberately. He wondered if it was some gift from the Kirijo group, as part of some weird initiation ceremony or other odd Shadow Operative ritual. He had no idea what he was getting into, so who knew what kind of things they would have to do?

In any case, there was no card or note explaining what they were for. Shrugging, John picked up the first mask; each of the masks seemed to resonate with one of the four Persona users in the room, and the blue-and-purple mask just seemed ‘right’ to John. With a quick shrug, John took off his glasses and donned the mask, then headed back to the bedroom.

“Hey guys, look at this!” he announced, performing jazz hands for comedic effect as his three friends look at him in his bizarre masquerade mask. “There’s a couple of weird masks in the other room. One for each of us!”

Dave quirked an eyebrow. “That’s... weird? I think I’d prefer a complimentary mint or something.”

“You should see one of them, though, Dave. It’s right up your alley!” John continued, resting his hands. “Heck, they seem like they’re designed just for us.”

Jade stood up from the bed. “Something from the Kirijo group?” she asked.

As he was about to reply, John’s vision suddenly blurred and he felt dizzy, struggling to keep his footing. A voice began speaking incomprehensible things in his mind, spoken only in muffled, hushed whispers. He stumbled back a bit and placed his hand on a nightstand to steady himself.

“Egbert! Shit, you alright?” Dave shouted as he rushed over. 

“I... Yeah, I just...” John began, looking up at Dave, who couldn’t help but gasp when he saw that the eye slits of the masks were glowing and obscuring John’s eyes. 

Without warning, John collapsed on the hotel floor.


	2. Into the Velvet Tower

John awoke with a start, gasping and looking around frantically as if he had just woken up from some terrible nightmare. He was shocked to see that he was lying upon hard stone, seemingly marble, yet cast in an indigo hue. 

Looking up from the ground, John bore witness to a massive tower, fittingly towering over him. The tower was a pristine white that was bathed in the omnipresent indigo light, apparently emanating from nowhere as the sky had no sun or moon. Far in the distance from the tower and the small courtyard that John was located lay mountains, all close enough to prevent any hope of traveling past them without use of flight.

Waking up in a foreign world such as this was something that John had never wanted to go through again, yet there he was. His situation reeked of shadows and their predicament of the previous year.

“John!” he heard someone call; Jade was rushing over to him from across the small marble courtyard. At least he wasn’t alone.

Jade took John’s hand and helped him up. John saw that she was wearing the mask from the hotel, the one bearing the dog ears. Curious, John felt the bridge of his nose, finding that he was also wearing one of the masks; the one that he had put on before passing out.

“What is this?” he asked, looking to his sister with concern.

Jade shook her head in return. “I’m sure you know as much as I do.” She said, sighing. “You put on that weird mask and then passed out. All I could do is try the same thing. It’s just like Asphodel.”

John shrunk at the mention of Asphodel. Did it not disappear when they defeated Hemera?

“But it’s most likely an entirely different dimension.” Called out another voice, this one belonging to Rose. Striding up to John and Jade with her ever-present air of calm, Rose was wearing one of the masks as well; hers being the black tentacle mask, as John had guessed. “It’s as Ms. Kirijo told us. There are multiple incidents involving the realm of the shadows; one can only assume that this is yet another.”

“I didn’t think we’d be getting to work so soon.” John muttered, sighing.

Rose shook her head. “I don’t think they planned on this situation.”

Dave walked up to the others, having woken up on the ground a few moments after the others. He was wearing the final mask from the hotel, the one with the gears and wings. “Déjà vu, huh?” he asked, looking around. “Putting on a mask is way cooler than typing a code into a computer though.”

“Fitting, is it not?” Rose asked, running her fingers across her own mask. “Personas, masks... it seems we have found ourselves intertwined in yet another... ‘adventure’, as it were.”

Dave nodded and smacked his fist into his palm. “Right. So, first things first, we find out whose deified godly ass to kick.”

A loud flash interrupted any further gung-ho pep talking from Dave, as a large square formed in the sky. The square bore a pattern of static akin to that of a television, a pattern that was gradually clearing up. The sound of a man talking could be heard, though behind the static his words were incoherent. 

“The hell is this?” Dave asked, squinting at the large ‘television’ in the sky.

“This, my dear children, is the Velvet Tower!” called the formerly muffled voice, now clear and amplified throughout the strange dimension. The picture on the screen cleared up as well; two people were sitting behind a desk similar to that of a news show. One was a brown-haired man wearing an elaborate plague doctor’s mask and a janitor’s outfit, while the other was a blonde woman with a simple masquerade mask of light green, blue, and pink.

Something about the man struck Dave as incredibly familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

“What is this place, really? Why did you bring us here?” John asked aloud.

The man in the plague doctor mask clapped his hands together. “Right to the point, excellent! I, in a fit of omniscient enlightenment, have decided to call forth twenty-one souls I feel worthy to participate in the Grand Masquerade of the Velvet Tower! A tournament, if you will, where you will battle each other to see who is the least terrible, and most fit to climb to the top of the tower, where he or she shall receive one wish of their choosing.”

Dave blinked. “Is that it? Really?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Dude, just bring on the massive shadow thing and let’s get this over with. We’ve got a plane to catch.”

“No need to be in a rush. Besides, I must mention two things. The rest of the contestants in the Masquerade are people you are likely to know; friends long thought lost. And the other caveat; you can’t leave. Not until a winner is crowned.”

John’s eyes brightened at the mention of lost friends. Could the man mean Vriska and the others?

Similarly interested in the ‘friends thought lost’ but peeved about being stuck, Dave scoffed. “Yeah, can’t leave. Sure.” He shouted, raising a hand to his mask and attempting to take it off. To his chagrin, it was stuck to his face. 

“Like I said. No leaving.” The man said, kicking back in his chair. There was something on his shirt that Dave and the others caught eye of; a name tag, one reading ‘Hello: My Name is Andrew’.

“Oh my God, it’s our janitor. Mr. Hussie.” John said aloud, dumbfounded. “How does he know about us? How is he even here?” 

Grinning, Hussie leaned forward and raised his plague doctor mask to the top of his head, revealing his face. The mask shimmered and disappeared, a golden crown taking its place. “Afraid it’s counterproductive to talk much about myself when there’s so much tournament to be had. Pleasure to be recognized, though. Now, we must be getting things rolling, yes?” 

“Dude, hold the fuck up!” Dave yelled. “It’s freaky enough that you’re involved in this in the first place, but you at least know who we are. You don’t really think we’d fight each other, right?”

Hussie sat forward from his reclined position. “I shall explain things in more detail then. Take a look at the tower in front of you.” 

The group collectively looked at the massive tower, as told. 

“This here is the Velvet Tower, a glorious structure in a dimension where time is irrelevant; don’t have to worry about missing your silly plane. The Velvet Tower contains seven floors. You four and seventeen are going to enter the first floor. From there you are free to explore and search for a way to the top. Should you encounter any other contestant in your explorations, the room will be locked until one of you proves the victor of a strife. 

“Don’t look so worried; you won’t be able to cause any real harm to each other. After all, the tournament wouldn’t last very long if you were literally tearing each other apart. Whoever wins gets to resume their climb; the loser gets to remain in stasis for an hour or so. Whenever someone reaches the very top, they win and I will grant one wish of their choosing. And like I said, there’s no leaving until someone wins it all! Come on, doesn’t a wish sound nice? Seeing old friends and then beating the shit out of them?” 

John looked at the others. “Well?” he asked, not sure what they though. Truthfully, if there was any chance that he could see Vriska again, then he would take it. Though it has been months since she and the others had disappeared in light of the Hemera incident, he was still quite smitten with her (or the memory of her, anyway) and longed to see her again, even if it was only for a while and involved a fight. 

“What choice do we have, really?” Jade asked. “I don’t know, I think it could be interesting if we let it be.”

Rose crossed her arms and looked at Jade incredulously. “You’re not seriously considering following through with this, are you?” she asked. “This is as obvious of a ploy as I’ve ever seen.”

“You got any bright ideas on how to get out of here?” Dave asked. “We’ll figure something out on the way up. Until then we might as well play along until we can kick his ass.”

“Sure, you think about ways to do that.” Hussie called, still listening. His female companion remained silent, a slight frown on her face. “Play along like some good kids and we’ll have a great time. Now, who’s ready to begin?”

The group collectively nodded; even Rose, who did so as sarcastically and spitefully as she possibly could. 

In response to this, a square of light began to glow. “Step on up and we can begin!”

Before doing so, Dave pulled everyone together. “Alright, guys. There’s obviously something up here, something we can’t do anything about yet. But no matter what happens, we can’t let up on being douchebags to this guy to piss him off til he slips. I’m still kinda weirded out that our school janitor managed to metaphysically kidnap us in the first place, but we’ll figure it all out as we wing it.”

“I can still hear you, you know.”

Jade looked to Dave. Ever since the deal with Hemera was solved, Dave had grown much more confident in his potential role of leader, a role he received mostly because of his special ability of the Wild Card which allowed him to summon multiple Personas instead of a set one. She was proud of him and his progress, and was glad that the team had someone like him to keep them together. “So, what do we do if we run into each other in the tower?”

“Whoever wins moves on, and if we don’t fight then we don’t move anywhere. I’m sure both of you have wanted to kick John’s ass at some point.” Dave continued.

“Hey!” 

“So here’s your chance. If we really can’t hurt each other then we might as well go all out and see who trumps who.” Dave concluded. “Let’s do this, I guess.”

With that, the group turned to the glowing square. John took a deep breath and walked forward, disappearing entirely when he stepped onto it. Jade walked forward next and vanished, followed by Rose.

With a deep breath, Dave prepped himself to enter yet another fight. No rest for the badass, as he would say. 

“See you up top, Huss.” He said aloud as he strode onto the square. His vision was filled with a bright flash as he stepped onto the square and was teleported into the tower, ready to take on his first challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The actual 'Arena' part of Personastuck Arena is about to begin, huzzah! Since the story is not actually concretely laid out yet and the 'arena' part of the story means that I have a little leeway in what I can and can't pull off. 
> 
> Therefore, if you have any matchups in mind, comment with your suggestion and I'll see what I can do. You suggestion may not be immediately implemented, but I'll definitely consider it. :D 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Have a lovely day!


	3. A Tale of Two Knights

The blinding light that assaulted Dave’s vision upon stepping onto the teleporting square faded away into a somber, melancholy blue. It reminded him of the Velvet Room; fittingly, since this place was called ‘The Velvet Tower’. Dave admittedly expected, and even looked forward to having Igor call him in again for another round of vague explanations of his current situation. As odd as it sounded, he missed the proprietor of the Velvet Room; he was the only guidance Dave really had over the course of his last venture.

Getting a closer look at the room he was in, Dave instantly recognized several things. A couch, a kitchen counter, a coffee table... He was in an enlarged version of his old dorm living room, where all of the objects were cast in an intense blue light.

Looking down at his hands, Dave saw that he wasn’t lit up in the same way. It was no light making the objects blue; they were all made of vivid blue materials. They were all spaced out as well, making the room very wide and open, about the size of a basketball court. There were no windows as there were in the actual dorm, and only two doors; one on each far side of the room. 

“Hello?” Dave called out, turning his head in every direction to look for anyone present in the room. He hardly expected anyone to ‘ambush’ him in this so-called tournament, but he still felt quite on edge.

Focusing his grip as he did so many times before in Hemera’s ‘computer realm’, Dave materialized a sword in his hand. To his surprise, it didn’t take the form of his old katana or his fancy broadsword; a new blade appeared, this one being unique in the matter that the guard of the sword was a miniature record player face, complete with a spinning record bearing no marks. The actual blade was straight like his old broadsword, and appeared segmented. Curious, Dave reached down and scratched the spinning record.

In response, the blade of the sword retracted into the guard, leaving only half of the blade poking out. It reminded him of the broken blade he used to finish off Hemera. Dave scratched the record in the opposite direction and found that the blade shot back out to its’ full length. It was an interesting gimmick, one that Dave would have to think about using creatively. 

Dave’s focus on his weapon was broken when he heard a door opening and closing. Looking to the opposite side of the room, he saw a familiar face; Karkat, dressed in his casual clothes and bearing the grey skin and horns that identified all of the fragments of Hemera in the world of shadows. He bore a masquerade mask as was to be expected; his was essentially the top half of a crab, claws and all, with holes for Karkat’s eyes. The center of the mask bore the image of a small red stripe with a small drop of ‘blood’ coming from it.

“Holy shit, Karkat. Dude, is that you?” Dave called out, walking forward. 

Karkat appeared startled and tightened his grip to summon his own weapon, a multicolored sickle. “Well, that figures. Should have guessed that you had something to do with this.” 

“So you’re all stuck here too. Assuming that the others are here, anyway.” Dave responded. “What gives? I thought you guys were stuck in the Velvet Room.”

Karkat rubbed at his temple with his free hand, shrugging with the other. “It’s different there when you’re not present. We were ‘awake’ when you visited, but after you left, Philemon sort of... put us to sleep. We’ve been out cold for the most part while we’re being ‘rebuilt’. It’s really fucking confusing but I’m not complaining. I could be dead. When we all woke up here, we thought that our time was done and we could return to the real world, but that all went up in flames when Fuckface McDouchewaffle starting yammering on about his stupid Masquerade-tournament thing. Honestly, it’s the least boring thing we’ve done in however long we’ve been out.”

“Fuckface McDouchewaffle?” called a voice that Dave instantly recognized as that of Hussie. A flickering, floating ‘screen’ appeared above the two in the dorm room, exactly like the one Dave and company had seen earlier but on a smaller scale. Hussie and his mysterious female companion appeared once more, and this time Hussie was wearing an elaborate suit and top hat. The outfit was complete with a monocle and a fake moustache. “Is that really the best insult you can come up with? You’ve got to put some heart and soul into your names, dearest Karkat!”

“Oh, you again.” Karkat mumbled, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “What now?”

Hussie brought his hands together excitedly. “Why, I’m here to stage the fight, of course! If you were to check the doors of this room at this very moment, you would see that they are quite irrevocably locked. And that, as you know, means only one of you is moving on without pause! It’s time for the blows to start flying!”

Dave looked at Karkat, shrugging. “No choice, I guess?” 

“Sure, whatever.” Karkat answered. “No reason to go easy on you, either”

“Is that the sweet sound of cooperation I hear?” Hussie exclaimed gleefully. The woman beside him simply smiled. “Very well! Ms. Paint here and I shall be the commentators on this lovely little bout of aggression, then! Introducing our combatants...”

The woman, now identified as Ms. Paint, handed a paper to Hussie, who took it and read from it. “In this corner; I warned you, dude! It just keeps happening! The Hapless Hopeless Hero, Dave Strider!”

Dave did not feel flattered in the least.

“And in this corner, hailing from a dimension residing between space and time; Someone’s looking crabby! The Cancerous Attitude Adjustment, Karkat Vantas!” 

Karkat’s eyebrow twitched. “Cancerous? Seriously?”

“Without any further ado, let the strife begin!” Hussie continued, ignoring Karkat entirely. 

Dave looked at Karkat and nodded, receiving a nod in return. Dave reached out to the air in front of him, summoning a glowing blue card.

“Let’s see... Karkat’s lightning based, so many I can try wind...” Dave said to himself, calling out to his Persona of the Moon Arcana. “Seth!” he shouted, slicing through the card with his blade.

To his surprise and dismay, his initial Persona Hermes appeared instead, his gears whirring and his caduceus glowing hot as always. 

“Oh, I forgot to mention. In the spirit of fair competition, I’m afraid I’ve taken to cutting off a good deal of your Wild Card advantages. Not to mention my disabling of the elemental weaknesses of you and the other contestants. Not much fun when someone throws a bunch of lightning at you, right?”

“You can’t do that!” Dave protested, attempting to switch his Persona to no avail. 

“Oh, but I can! You’ll come to understand ‘Partial Omniscience’ at some point during your stay at the Velvet Tower.” Hussie teased. “Now, let’s get this show on the road, yes?”

Karkat had summoned his own Persona in the meantime; Kronos, sporting his blood-red cape and his crab shell-armored left arm. Once ready, Karkat sprinted forward with his sickle raised, ready to begin. 

Dave immediately scratched his sword record to retract his blade for a later time, then parried Karkat’s initial strike. Karkat leapt back as Kronos rushed forward, swinging his own crab shell sickle at Dave. 

The attack was dodged easily by Dave who ducked under the approaching Persona. He then commanded Hermes to strike out at Kronos, launching a fireball that only narrowly missed its’ mark and burst on one of the far walls. 

Karkat rushed again with surprising ferocity. Dave had never seen him fight to his full potential; the only chance he ever got was against the possessed Gamzee, and that was while he struggling against crippling mind control. With no precedent on Kakrat’s fighting style other than his ruthless aggression, Dave could only guess at what his opponent was capable of. Concentrating, Dave leapt over a low swing and brought his sword down, striking home on Karkat’s shoulder.

Dave saw what Hussie meant when no one was going to be seriously injured in the fighting. Dave’s sword passed clean through Karkat’s shoulder; the impact was felt and Karkat reeled in pain, but there was no wound. Instead there was a glowing ‘crack’ in Karkat’s shoulder where the wound would have been, a glow that faded soon after it appeared. 

“Oooh, looks like our first hit has been scored!” Hussie shouted from his floating screen. “You’ve got to block, you fool!”

Karkat groaned and raised his sickle again. “Ugh, shut up!” he shouted, leaping at Dave once again. Dave was prepared to block again, but found that Kakat’s blow fell short. His surprise ensured that he wasn’t ready for Kronos to come barreling at him, knocking him a good few feet back. 

“Don’t worry, you can still get up!” chirped in a soft, sweet voice. Dave could only assume it was Ms. Paint, who seemed to be cheering for him in opposition of Hussie’s constructive criticism towards Karkat. Dave heaved himself up from the ground and readied himself for Karkat’s next attack. “Two can play at this game, Vantas.” He muttered.

The sickle came slicing in wildly yet again, and Dave leapt back a few times to ensure Karkat kept making pointless strikes to expend his energy. With a quick look up, Dave could see that Kronos was again rushing through the air at Dave, who was far better prepared than he was during the previous assault. 

“Agidyne!” Dave shouted, leaping back once more to make room for the wall of fire that Hermes lit in front of him. Karkat fell back to get away from the flames, while Kronos rushed right through the wall and was lit on fire. The flames caused the Persona to lose control of its flight path, causing it to careen into a nearby wall. 

“There you go! Great work, Dave!” exclaimed Ms. Paint. 

Hussie groaned. “No, you dolt, you got the combo wrong! It’s X, Down, X, Up, Left, Left, X!” he lectured, much to the confusion of Dave and Karkat alike. It was already clear that the whole tournament was a game to the maniacal and apparently omniscient janitor; it appeared that it was also literally a game in his eyes, evidenced by his yelling at a player that wasn’t even there. 

With renewed confidence, Dave rushed forward to take advantage of Karkat’s downed status as the wall of fire died down. Karkat had made it back up on his feet by now, but with his Persona on fire and still reeling from a head-on collision with a wall, he wasn’t in much position to go on another fierce offensive. 

Dave swung his half-blade at Karkat, who blocked it with the inside curve of his sickle, putting both of the fighters in a deadlock. Grinning, Dave put all of his strength into holding against the deadlock with one hand, and used his free hand to scratch the record on his sword. The blade shot out like earlier and stabbed Karkat square in the gut, creating another glowing rift and making Karkat stumble backwards. 

“You’re pretty good...” Karkat mumbled, clutching his glowing stomach as Kronos returned to him. “Secret weapon time, then! Infuriate!”

Dave prepared to step away from a simple status-effect attack, but then remembered their battle with Shadow Karkat; he had casted an enraging spell on himself to make him more dangerous. It appeared that the actual Karkat was employing that very tactic.

Karkat began to glow a shade of orange and started to emit an almost inhuman snarl. Gripping his sickle tight, Karkat shouted loudly as he dashed at Dave to go for one last all-out offensive. “Take this, you blithering shit-stain!”

“Hey, hurtful!” Dave retorted, knowing that beating back an enraged Karkat was going to be difficult. He sidestepped the first rush, but Karkat turned abnormally fast and swung his sickle in a wide arc, catching Dave in the hip with a strong blow. 

Dave grunted and skidded back, his hip glowing from the hit. Karkat rushed at him again, and Dave could think of only one way to get himself to safety. “Hermes!” he shouted, having his Persona lay out its staff. Dave leapt onto the staff, allowing Hermes to launch him into the air and out of Karkat’s reach. 

Karkat’s gaze swung upwards as Dave came down with an extended foot, landing on his opponent’s face. Karkat fell from the blow and dropped his sickle, which Dave managed to catch in mid-air. Pointing his sword at Karkat’s throat, Dave grinned. “I think that settles it, huh?”

Winded, Karkat breathed heavily. “God dammit.” He muttered, lying down completely. 

“It appears we have a winner!” Hussie announced. “Dave will advance, and Karkat will remain in stasis for an hour. Or until I get bored of him staying still.” 

Dave returned Karkat’s sickle and helped his opponent up. “See you further up.” 

“Yeah. Sure thing.” Karkat replied. A flash occurred and Karkat was encased in what looked like a glass cube. The sides of the glass cube bore projected images of others in the tower; Dave could make out Jade making her way down a hallway with gun in hand, and could also see Sollux throwing a multitude of shurikens at an unknown opponent. “Well, at least I won’t be bored.” Karkat added.

Dave smirked and turned to the door, running over and going through it to meet his next fight.


	4. Sailing Through the Sea of Souls

The Velvet Room, as always, was quiet in the absence of a guest. With no visitor to give it concrete form, the room was reduced to its basest form; a blue, featureless room. The blandness of it all made it unclear what the shape of the room was, but for the residents of the room, their state of rest made such things irrelevant. All that matters was their wait for their next visitor.

When Dirk felt himself coming to, he was a little surprised. So soon? He had expected maybe a few more years, like Igor had said.

“What... what’s going on?” he asked, a little disoriented. He had only been a Velvet Room attendant for a short amount of time, and while it was something easy to get used to, he wasn’t quite done adjusting. 

He looked to Igor, who was rubbing his temple as if he had a headache. “There is a... disturbance, it seems. Somewhere in a very old realm not unlike ours.”

“A disturbance. Shadows? Then shouldn’t we have a guest?” Dirk asked, confused. 

A few feet away, a woman with long blonde hair garbed in the typical Velvet Room attire floated idly; Margaret, or as Dirk had come to affectionately call her, ‘sis’. “I believe this is different.” She responded, staring into the distance. “Would I be correct in that belief, master?”

The long-nosed proprietor of the Velvet Room nodded. “This already involves a guest of ours. Two of them, in fact.” He replied. “One of which you know well.”

“Dave?” Dirk asked with a smile on his face. He missed his old schoolmates from when he was ‘alive’.

“Yes.” Margaret replied. “As for the other... I have no memory of them. Regardless, this disturbance must be stopped.”

Igor looked to Dirk. “You are a new attendant, yet to fully adjust to your powers. I believe this would be a suitable way to advance yourself.”

Dirk quirked an eyebrow. “What will I be doing, exactly?”

“As Margaret stated, this disturbance cannot be allowed to stand. You will make your way to this realm and assist those who are involved in stopping it, or to stop it yourself if all else fails. To aid you in this labor, take this...” Igor began, waving his hand.

A book faded into view before Dirk’s eyes, gently gliding into his hand. The book, blue much like the Velvet Room itself and adorned with gold hinges, was familiar to Dirk. The Persona Compendium, a book containing the endless potential Personas that could emerge from the Sea of the Soul. 

“The Compendium?” Dirk asked, humbled that he would be trusted with such a thing.

“Take it and use it to the best of your abilities.” Margaret told Dirk, speaking in a reassuring tone of voice. “We expect great things from you.”

Dirk smiled and lifted off of the ground, floating a few feet from the air. “Thanks, sis.” He said before he shot off into the endless reaches of the Sea of Souls, following the familiar feeling of Dave’s psyche to find his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small update just to get back in the groove of things. Hello, Dirk!


	5. Overdue Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's baaaaack
> 
> Hint: i am back. its me.

John eagerly made his way through the long halls of the Velvet Tower, anticipating what might come next. It would be great to see anyone involved in the Hemera business again, but he truly desired to see Vriska above anyone else. How couldn't he? One's first love is not easily forgotten, and Monica Potter _totally_ didn't count.

Finally he made it into a room, and it was strikingly familiar to him. It was a larger version of the interior of the Rising Sun sushi joint, where he and his friends spent much of their time. It was spaced to allow for more floor space for the upcoming fight, and was cast entirely in blue as well.

John paced the room for a few moments, inspecting it. For a place that meant so much to him, the reconstruction of it within the Velvet Tower was strangely foreign. It probably had something to do with the fact that it was entirely blue.

He began to hear soft footsteps, which slowly grew louder as the person approaching came closer. John turned to the direction the steps were coming from and tightened his grip to summon his hammer. What came into view was different than the flat-headed warhammer that he was used to; instead came into being an interesting hammer with a steel head that resembled a clothes iron attached to the green shaft of the hammer by a spring. On the opposite end of the shaft was a steel spike, which also resembled a clothing iron. Lastly, atop the shaft rested the likeness of a smiling ghost for decoration.  
  
John had no time to test out or worry about his new weapon, however, as the footsteps got even closer. Out of a nearby door walked a familiar face.

"Vriska!" John shouted as he dropped his hammer and ran forward. His hammer dissipated into light as it hit the ground.

Vriska's eyed widened as John ran forward, and she ran ahead to meet him. The two met in a hug, with John lifting and spinning Vriska about.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" John confessed. "So... I guess what Janitor Hussie said was true." he added, getting a good look at Vriska's masquerade mask. As expected it was spider themed, specifically after a black widow, with an 8-ball where the red markings on the abdomen would be. The eye sockets were outlined by fancy, blue-winged 'eye liner' accents. He also noted that she had the grey skin and horns from months before during their original adventures in the shadow world.

"Can't say ditto, I figured that Igor would have us out of there after a few months or something." Vriska replied.

John cocked his head. "Who now? Igor?" he asked. "Wait, that big-nose guy that Dave would go on about, right?"

"Yeah, him. After you guys blew Hemera to hell, we weren't entirely whole anymore... it had a lot to do with all twelve of us being merged together and then nearly destroyed." Vriska answered, backing out of the hug. "I've had a lot of time to think and all that. And I missed you."

Smiling, John leaned forward to kiss Vriska, but the latter backed away slowly.

"Um. I'm sorry..." John muttered, confused. "Was that wrong? Did I do something wrong? Is there something on my face?"

Vriska shook her head. "John, look... I'm barely used to being... well, _alive_ again, and first thing I get is some asshole robbing me from the Velvet Room and dragging me here. Everything's just happening really quick and I'm just not entirely sure what to feel about anything right now. Walking into the room, I felt real happy, but... I'm not sure if it was the same thing I felt when I was alive."

"Does that, uh... Apply to us?" John asked. He had no idea how Vriska was feeling, and had no possible way of beginning to understand the process of being built-up from nearly the ground up. Still, he had to ask.

The sigh that Vriska uttered was like a knife to John's heart. "John, I... Don't do this to me right now, alright?"

"Oooooh, shot down at first sight!" yelled a voice over an invisible intercom; Hussie again, ready to commentate on the upcoming brawl. "I was pretty proud of this matchup; the perfect touch of drama as two star-crossed lovers cross their metaphorical blades! The break-up scenario was only a bonus! Now, we will see, which one will outlast the other?"

Vriska rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Ugh... don't remind me."

"Hey!" John shouted.

"Now, remember, the one who wins gets to move on, and the loser has to stick around until we see fit to release them! So, without ANY further ado, in the blue corner..."

A spotlight shone on John.

"Who you gonna call? Not him! The Clueless Storm of Comedy, John Egbert!" Hussie announced, spinning happily around in his swivel chair as Ms. Paint sat silent besides him.

John hung his mouth open a bit at the title. He wasn't clueless... right?

"And in the **other** blue corner... All of the irons are in the fire! The Web of Lies and Slander, Vriska Serket!"

Vriska scoffed. "Oh, fuck off." Was all she said to Hussie before looking back to John. "Well. One way in, one way out, right? No hard feelings?"

"Yes, hard feelings!" John shot back, not summoning his hammer.

"Well then, use that." Vriska replied as she danced a 8-sided die. "And we'll talk once we're out of here."

John gulped. "But... I can't hit girls... they're soft..."

Vriska grinned. "Not my problem!" she shouted, beginning the fight by tossing a handful of dice straight at John.

John knew full well the power of Vriska's dice-bombs, so he dove out of the way to avoid the ensuing blast.

"And an explosive start from Miss Serket!" Hussie observed from his floating screen. "And it looks like the love-stricken idiot is still without a weapon in his hand!"

"You have to fight back, John, or this might end badly!" quietly encouraged Ms. Paint from besides Hussie.

Groaning, John summoned his new hammer. "Ugh... Fine, fine." he muttered as he carefully approached.

Vriska threw another barrage from her left hand to keep the advantage of range. John backed away and swung his hammer, knocking some of the dice back at Vriska. Not expecting that, Vriska threw up her arms to block the blast. The dice erupted into a blast of ice, which hurt more than she expected.

"Hey, what's the deal? Ice is kinda my thing!" Vriska protested.

"Neutral ground, baby!" Hussie explained. "Here in the Velvet Tower, everyone is just as vulnerable to everything as everyone else! Level playing field, you see, where it's your skill that matters!"

Vriska grumbled. "Ugh, whatever. And _never_  call me 'baby' ever again." 

John continued to circle his opponent, looking for an opening, so Vriska decided to mix things up. "Arachne!" she called out, summoning her Persona.

Arachne faded into view behind her summoner as the area around Vriska was bathed in waves of pale blue light. John still remembered Arachne from those months ago; half-woman, half-spider and bare-chested  with long blue hair for modesty. It was unnerving to face down Arachne for the first time; he had never had the unfortunate fate of being on the other side of a battle with Vriska.

"Bufudyne!" Vriska shouted, using Arachne to summon a large spear of ice. She launched the ice forward at John, who rolled off to the side to avoid it.

"Ha!" John taunted as he got back up, but his victory was shattered when he saw that Vriska was still grinning. He turned back quickly and saw the shattered shards of the icicle rising off the ground and flying back at him.

John quickly stepped back and summoned his own Persona. "Aelous!" he called. The genie-like Persona burst into view in a cloud of blue smoke, floating proudly with crossed arms. "Garudyne!" John commanded, running out of time with the ice shards chasing him.

Aelous obliged and created a wind disk in front of John, blowing the ice shards out of the way. Unfortunately, John had his back turned on Vriska, who rushed forward and kicked him down to the ground. John dropped his hammer, and it disappeared in a flash of light.

John rolled over to get leap back onto his feet, but was prevented from doing so by Vriska's foot on his chest. He silently willed Aelous to strike forward, but Arachne flew forth to catch Aelous' fist in her hand. Vriska grinned down at him, holding a handful of dice over him tauntingly.

"So? That is, Huss?" Vriska called out, not breaking eye contact with John.

"It would appear so! Vriska advances into the reaches of the tower!" Hussie announced, again while spinning around in his chair.

Ms. Paint gingerly tapped her mic. "Meanwhile, John will stay here. But don't worry, you'll be back on your way before you know it."

Vriska nodded and offered a hand, helping John up from the floor. When he was up, she rolled her eyes and kissed his cheek. "There. For, uh, understanding, and stuff."

With that said, a door appeared on one of the walls of the blue sushi joint, which Vriska ran towards. Once within, she headed up the stairs and disappeared.

John reached out after her, but found himself stuck within an invisible cube. He sighed and took a seat as small holographic screens popped up. One showed Vriska running up the stairs, and another one showed Jade stepping into a blue room.

He looked at the image of Vriska and sighed wistfully. Girls were weird.


	6. The Bright Side of Death

Rose was quite reluctant to go along with the established formula of the crazed Janitor's tournament; true to her nature as a rule-breaker, of course. Since the very moment Hussie began laying out his rules, she had been searching for kink in the plan, a rip in the fabric of their fabricated reality.

Having only been there for a little under twenty minutes, however, she had yet to find anything. Which was fine; scientific progress was slow by nature, particularly in completely foreign settings such as the one Rose found herself in.

Where was she indeed? It appeared to be a completely blue version of the Sassacre Academy Library. The bookshelves were spaced out considerably, giving the room a more open feel. It was very unorthodox for a library, but then again, everything about the entire situation was quite abnormal.

Rose tried to remove one of the books from a nearby shelf, but found it to be quite stuck. It was all merely decoration, then; recreations of her memories, perhaps, to stir emotions? Emotions were the driving force behind the power of Persona; perhaps their captor was trying to exploit this. Making a mental note to keep such things in mind, she proceeded to walk about the room. Was she supposed to wait for someone else? There was only the door she came out of...

As if on cue, someone stepped out of a newly-formed door in the library. Rose saw Aradia, bright-eyed and happy as always, walk into the room. She still possessed her grey skin and horns, to Rose's surprise. Also of note was her masquerade mask; it resembled the upper half of a skull, adorned with mutlicolored feathers and flowers. It reflected Aradia's joyous, yet macabre, tastes.

Rose sighed. She would have preferred to fight someone with less... crazy inclinations.

"Hiiiiii, Rose!" Aradia squealed as she ran up to her old friend. She immediately wrapped her in a hug, which Rose had to work her way out of.

"Er... Hello, Aradia." Rose mumbled, a bit perturbed. "Please, excuse me. I'm trying to figure all of this out. There's got to be some way I can unravel the reality we find ourselves trapped within."

Aradia blinked. "I'm sorry, what? Why would you want to do that? Aren't we supposed to fight?"

Rose shook her head and turned away to inspect the bookshelves. "We're _supposed_ to, but I've no intention of heeding whatever this man tells us to do."

"Awww, but Rose... if we don't fight then I can't wipe the floor with you and get to the top to make my wish!" Aradia whined.

That stopped Rose in her tracks. She blinked and turned slowly towards Aradia again. "I'm sorry?"

"You heard me!" Aradia chirped with her ever-present smile on her face. "If we play by the rules, then one of us gets to the top for a wish! And it's gonna be me and Hades!"

Aradia's shadowy persona manifested behind when called. Hades was like a solid silhouette with massive arms, ready for pummeling enemies or protecting its mistress. Menacing as ever despite Aradia's sunny disposition, the only non-threatening part of Hades was the flower crown decorating its dark head where only red eyes were seen.

Rose backed away slowly, not out of fear but out of an intention to size up her opposition. "Aradia, would you just-"

"You sound just like Vriska, always wanting to break out of stuff! Bend the rules!" Aradia observed as she rolled her eyes. "Well, nope! Not having any of it! If we're able to fight like we used to, with no consequences and no lasting injuries, then I think it'd be fun to take advantage of the opportunity we've been given!"

The name _Vriska_ brought a sour expression to Rose's face. "So she _is_ here. Lovely." Rose mumbled as she pinched the bridge of her nose. The fact that Aradia said the she sounded like Vriska brought no amount of pleasure to Rose. 

"Yeah, and so are the rest of us!" Aradia answered as she brandished her whip with a smile. "So, are we gonna get this started, or what?"

Rose groaned audibly. "No, Aradia, I already said that I-"

The sound of static cut in Rose's sentence and a floating screen blinked into view. Upon the screen was the mysterious Hussie, sitting next to the even more mysterious Ms. Paint in their cluttered audio studio in an unknown location. "Well, well! I certainly wish all of our contestants were as cooperative as you, dear Aradia!"

Aradia giggled and waved.

"Rose there is looking quite impatient, isn't she?" Hussie asked aloud. "Well then, let's get this started, shall we?"

"Let's not..." Rose mumbled.

Clearing his throat, Hussie went down his list of assigned nicknames.  "Welcome to the Velvet Tower, ladies and gentlemen within the cubes of defeat! I'm your lord and master of ceremonies, and I'm bringing you an exciting match between two charged young ladies! Let's meet them, shall we?"

A light shone down upon Aradia first. "In THIS corner... She’ll exhume you when she’s done! The Bubbly Tomb Raider, Aradia Megido!"

Aradia smiled and did a little twirl, obviously enjoying her time in the spotlight.

"And in the OTHER corner... _Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh!_ The Eldritch Stagnant Needle, Rose Lalonde!"

Rose was genuinely surprised by the practically-flawless Lovecraftian pronunciation from the omniscient janitor. The nickname, besides the 'stagnant' part, wasn't half bad either. Still, Rose had no intention of fighting. 

"Hades!" Aradia shouted, having her Persona rush foward and deliver a vicious punch with its massive arms. The blow came like a freight train, catching Rose in the face and her entire head, by extension.

Rose flew back several yards, plowing through the bookshelves of the 'library' until she slammed into the wall. For a few seconds she stumbled about in a dazed state, trying to get back on her feet. Aradia was already on the pursuit, however, rushing forward with her whip.

Snapping back into action, Rose summoned her own Persona with a shout. "Persephone!"

Persephone came into view; the torso of a young woman with flowing white hair, and the lower body of a tentacled monster. In her hands she wielded two crude, yet glimmering blades. With these blades she swung at the approaching enemy, causing Aradia to duck and fall back.

The playing field was again even, save for the aching headache plaguing Rose. "Very well..." she mumbled. "If you insist, Aradia, then I'll just have to retaliate, won't I?"

Persephone's form began to crackle with electricity. Rose smirked and summoned her weapons. They felt a little different, so she hazarded a quick look down; her needles were no longer simply oversized sewing needles; they were stylized needles of twisting black and grey colors, topped off with skulls at their base. The needles gave off a slight purple glow.

Smiling, Rose thrust one of her new needles forward and commanded Persephone with a shout of "Ziodyne!", causing the Persona to shoot a massive bolt of electricity.

Gasping, Aradia, swung her arms in front of herself defensively, prompting Hades to bring its massive arms forward to create Aradia's Iron Maiden. Rose recalled the ability; unique to Aradia, the technique caused Hades' arms to morph into a black iron maiden that allowed her to absorb unknowable amounts of damage at the cost of her own energy. The lightning bolt from Rose bounced harmlessly off of the iron maiden, and Aradia released herself from it. She fell to her knees as she escaped from the double-edged sword of a defense.

Rose ran forward and slashed at Aradia, scoring a few hits on her torso and leaving behind glowing white marks where the wounds would be. Aradia, her teeth gritted, leapt back and cracked her whip at Rose's feet. Rose leapt back as well, widening the distance between her and Aradia; a dangerous situation since Aradia had more time to react with the iron maiden at a distance.

"Mudo!" Aradia shouted as she tried to press the attack. Purple flames began to circle around Rose, causing great alarm since she was a user of the spell herself. Rose quickly leapt out of the circle and skidded a few inches. The purple flames exploded soon after without harm.

In retaliation, she threw a spell of her own; "Hama!"

Aradia found herself surrounded by glowing curse tags, so she dove forward before they let out their flash of light. As she came out of the roll, she swung her whip forward, cutting Rose on the cheek.

"And we're getting right to the thick of things, aren't we?" Hussie shouted as the floating screen circled the combatants.

Ms. Paint nodded. "And both of them seem evenly matched." she agreed in a sweet voice.

"We'll see about that!" Aradia chirped; Bubbly and excitable, even during the heat of battle. Without a verbal command, Hades paired its hands into an iron maiden, _without_ Aradia inside. "Bring her down, babe!" Aradia shouted.

Rose understood; Aradia meant to crush her with the iron maiden. She understood that no true harm could come to her during the tournament, but she had to question that rule as she looked at the heavy iron maiden as it loomed over her.

Without enough room to dodge out of the way, Rose thought fast about her escape. "Persephone!" she shouted, calling her Persona to her aid. The iron maiden swung down and Persephone caught it with her blades, holding it for the time being. Rose could feel the immense pressure that her Persona was battling; it felt like someone pushing hard upon her chest; so she rushed forward under the iron maiden towards Aradia, who thought she had won with that last move.

"Wh-what?" Aradia spoke as she saw Rose rushing forward. She swung her whip in an attempt at self-defense, but Rose ducked underneath it and launched one of her needles forward. The needle twirled in midair and found a spot in Aradia's stomach, the would-be wound shimmering in the darkness. Aradia looked down at the needle with wide eyes as Hades vanished from view. Rose felt the intense pressure wear off and took a breath of relief.

Finally, Aradia spoke. "Well... I guess that's a loss for me." she mentioned as she yanked the needle out of the glowing spot in her stomach. She absent-mindedly tossed it back to Rose and smiled. "Good game!" she mentioned as she tried to walk forward for a congratulatory hug, but she found herself contained by an invisible cube. "Awww."

Rose caught her needle and willed the pair of them to disappear. "Well. If we're quite done here... Then I hope to see you again after all this is done with." she mentioned, giving her first smile since the match began.

"Hey, you too!" Aradia agreed with a grin. "And hey, watch for Vriska, okay? I know you two don't get along, but I think you two are on the same track here. Kay?"

Rose sighed and rolled her eyes. "Very well, I'll keep an eye out." she agreed, giving a rather empty promise. Not far away from her, a door appeared, thus giving her a route to the next room.

"Well. Not quire the outcome I was hoping for, I must say." Hussie mumbled. "But the best has won! We'll be seeing more of Aradia later, of course; mayhaps she will be able to redeem this loss and take her reven-"

"Ssshhhh!" Aradia scolded. "I'm trying to watch." she said, pointing to the holographic screens within the invisible cube that she was trapped within. One of the screen showed Jade walking into a room.

"Oh, Jade's here too! Lovely!" Aradia said with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to crank out. I had it fully typed out then lost everything, so starting over wasn't the easiest thing to do. Hopefully 7 doesn't take as long.


	7. The Sun and Moon

Jade's door led to what appeared to be the roof of their old dorm building back at Sassacre, save for the fact that it was much larger and everything was a distinct shade of blue. Even the expansive campus below was completely blue and still, with no cars on the streets or people walking the sidewalk.

Confused, Jade turned about to look at the door she stepped through. It was a door frame standing on its own, leading into darkness. Jade was skeptical and decided to wave her hand over the edge of the roof. As she suspected, her hand pressed against something solid, as if she had touched a wall. Perhaps it was indeed a wall, and was merely projecting an incredibly convincing optical illusion. That, or it was simply an invisible wall.

The sound of a door opening behind her startled Jade. She turned to see Roxy stepping out of a standalone door frame of her own. Roxy immediately gasped in joy and ran over, enveloping Jade in a tight hug. "Oh my gosh, Jade! You're here too!"

Jade choked out a giggle from within Roxy's death-grip, which Roxy loosened after a bit. Jade returned the hug with a smile. "Of course we are! Did you really expect us to not be involved in something like this?"

Roxy shrugged. "Well, like you told us when we last talked, there's other Persona-users out there in Japan and stuff! Some of them might have been involved, who knows?"

Jade pondered that for a moment. "I suppose you're right. The guy running this place says that Vriska and the others are here... But he said there were 'you four and seventeen'. Twenty-one in all. Us four, your... three, and the twelve shadow-students make nineteen. Assuming he's not lying, there's two people we're not familiar with in here with us." 

"Hmm... I was hoping someone would know what this was all about besides the 'beat the crap out of everyone, win a prize' deal, but I suppose that was wishful thinkin'." Roxy sighed. "Have you had a fight yet? You have any idea how this works?"

Again Jade pondered. "No... not really. All I know is that we can't _really_ be hurt. And we only move on when we win, I think. It's that or be stuck here." she concluded, heaving a sigh to match Roxy's. "I don't really wanna fight, but-"

"Don't want to fight? You might be in the wrong place, sister!" shouted a voice only recently familiar to the two girls. Hussie and his mysterious assistant blinked into view via their floating projected screen. The odd janitor was dressed in a striking top-hat and suit, both a tacky shade of lustrous gold. The outfit was complete with a gold-plated pipe lazily hanging out of his mouth.

"Do we really have to do this? I mean, Roxy's my friend!" Jade protested.

Hussie spun around his swivel-chair. "Yes, yes, I hear this drivel every time one of you moves on into a room. I'd tell you to get it out of your system, but we're on a tight schedule. SO, let's move on to the fun part before the fun part; the introductions! In this corner... She’s got you in her sights! The Scientific Deadshot Crybaby, Jade Harley!"

Jade stomped her foot. "Oh, come on! That's so unflattering..."

"And in the far less whiny corner... Why would you want to be sober? The Charming Alcoholic Rogue, Roxy Lalonde!" 

Roxy stomped her foot likewise. "Hey! I've been clean for a while now..."

"Well! I see we're all quite angry with our graciously granted titles, so let's channel that frustration into primal rage! Let the battle begin!"

The announcement continued to ring, but all Jade and Roxy did was stare at each other.

"We can't hurt each other, right?" Roxy asked.

"Right, but... You're not seriously...?"

Roxy grinned and tightened her fist, making her assault rifle appear in a flash. "Just pretend it's like laser tag all over again!"

"But there weren't even projectiles!" Jade pouted. "And there isn't even a maze up here!"

Roxy's grin widened as she stepped away. A card faded into view, spinning in front of Roxy until she pierced it with a bullet and a cry of "Persona!", causing her Persona Artemis to appear.

With a wave of her crossbow-arm, Artemis froze over parts of the rooftop and caused blocks of ice to shoot up around Roxy and Jade, creating an ice-maze to serve as an obstacle to Roxy's advantage.

"Seriously?" Jade called out, looking about to see where she could go within the maze. "Well, if that's how it's gonna be, that's how it's gonna be. Gotta get to the top somehow." she muttered to herself, summoning her gun. What materialized wasn't her former hunting rifle, but an assault shotgun. The gun was made unique by the decorative red diamond decal above the grip, and the words "Girl's Best Friend" carved into the stock. It took some willpower from Jade to keep her inner gun-nerd from shedding a few tears at the beauty of the thing. If she _had_ to fight, at least she'd be able to do it in style.

Jade summoned her will in the form of her Persona Sirius. It had felt like forever since she had seen it; an eyeless white wolf clad in silver armor, crackling with green bolts of electricity. Jade gently stroked the fur behind Sirius' ears with a smile. "Alright, boy, she wants to play dirty, so we'll just have to sniff her out!"

Sirius barked in response and concentrated power in its muzzle, releasing the energy in a loud bark at a wall of ice in front of it. The ice wall cracked and shattered, revealing a sneaking Roxy just beyond. 

"Hey, no fair!" Roxy shouted, aiming her rifle forward and firing a burst. Jade gasped and retreated to the side, avoiding the burst of bullets in the nick of time. She decided to circumvent the ice maze in a different way; not through, but over.

"Bufudyne!" Jade shouted. Sirius complied and brought for a block of ice where Jade had commanded; right under her feet. The block of ice rose up like an elevator, bringing Jade up to the top of the ice walls of Roxy's creation. She leapt onto them and got the jump on Roxy, aiming her shotgun down and shouting "Surprise!" before firing. 

Roxy gasped and took the buckshot, falling back. Several glowing white dots dotted her torso, where she had suffered the damage. "Hmph, not bad!" she praised as she got back to her feet. "But I've got a few tricks of my own, too! Come, Artemis; Mabufudyne!"

Jade gasped as the ice wall beneath her feet started to shake. Suddenly it shot up into the air, as did several other chunks of the walls. Within a few moments, the air above the dorm roof was filled with icy platforms, flying randomly about and occasionally crashing into each other.

With the power of Persona granting superhuman agility and other attributes, Jade was able to keep her footing with some help from her natural affinity for ice. She scanned the flying chunks and spied Roxy atop one, trying to line up a shot.

Jade gasped and summoned Sirius back to her side. "Tetrakarn!" she shouted, summoning a bubble to surround herself and Sirius. Roxy fired off another burst from her rifle, but the bullets ricocheted off of the Tetrakarn bubble and flew off in random directions. Jade then leapt off of her ice chunk to another, trying to get closer to Roxy to utilize her shotgun.

"Aww, hold still!" Roxy complained as she attempted to manipulate the ice platforms to throw Jade off. Jade found her new platform to be rocketing off too fast for her to maintain a solid footing, and was thrown off when it collided with another chunk of ice in midair.

Jade hit the ground with a thud and rolled away slightly, groaning. There might not have been any lasting injuries from the fight, but the fall still hurt quite a bit. Roxy descended to the ground to press the advantage, chuckling as she did. "Give up yet?"

Getting back to her feet, Jade grinned and raised a hand upwards. "Diarahan!" she called out, calling a flash of light to wash over her and heal some of her injuries.

"Oh, come on!" Roxy protested, taking aim and letting loose a hail of bullets. Jade, having expended a lot of magical energy as healing spells tended to demand, found herself a sitting duck for the volley and staggered from the shots. Still she refused to back down, and found herself closer to Roxy than when they were on the floating chunks of ice. Instead of leaping away to find a better defensive position, Jade retaliated with an offensive shotgun blast, again knocking Roxy off of her feet.

With her concentration broken, Roxy's large ice platforms began falling from the sky; each of them the size of a small car. Jade gasped and began launching blasts of ice of her own to knock the ice platforms away from her. Soon the rooftop was filled with shattered crystals of ice. Jade found her breath to be visible in the lowered temperature.

Roxy staggered to her feet and spat defiantly. "Alright, alright, so you've picked up a few tricks. But we're not too different when it comes to combat, Jadey!" she taunted, raising her own hand. "Diarama!" she called out. Artemis appeared and bestowed a wave of light onto Roxy, healing some of her wounds just as Jade had done.

"What, so we're just gonna keep doing this all day?" Hussie called out from his screen. "Boooooring!"

"This could be quite the battle of attrition!" Ms. Paint agreed.

Jade smiled. "On the contrary!" she replied, taking a deep breath and raising her hand to command her Persona.

"Eh?" Roxy asked, standing by for a second to get an idea of what Jade was doing.

Jade concentrated on the ice shards strewn about the arena, which Roxy had relinquished control of when she took the shotgun blast earlier. A gust of razor-ice shards began flying into the air, swirling about and gaining both speed and more shards as it traveled throughout the air.

"Oh, no no no!" Roxy shouted in a panic, scrambling about to get away from the flurry. Unfortunately for Roxy, Jade proved to be the faster, and sent the final wave of ice shards like a blizzard rocketing forth at her opponent. Roxy was caught and thrown back as the vicious frozen gust overtook her.

Soon enough it was over, and the ice slowly faded from the arena. Roxy grumbled from her face-down position on the roof, several glowing white spots shining all over her body.

"Well, that's what you get for being quick on the trigger!" Jade teased, going over to help Roxy up. She found herself blocked by an invisible wall surrounding the defeated Roxy.

"A job very well done by the lovely Miss Harley! As stated before, only the victors move forth! The loser has to sit out for a bit and contemplate just what it is they did wrong!" Hussie announced. "Until next time, fighters!"

With that, the screen vanished from sight, and a new door leading to a set of stairs appeared. Still, Jade kept looking to Roxy. "Hey, you okay there?"

Roxy nodded and rolled over onto her back, revealing herself to be smiling. "I just... ah, I missed all this Persona stuff so much! It's like being back then, fighting the shadows with all of you all over again... It's kinda nice."

Jade paused for a moment, finding that she had felt something similar during the fight. It had been months since they defeated Hemera, and since then the entry into the other world via the 'Gateway Code' on their computers (which had been revealed to be a ruse by Gamzee) no longer worked. Perhaps it was because of Hemera's absence that they could no longer enter the other world. But if that were true, why were they in this odd 'Velvet Tower'? Perhaps there were more 'other worlds' out there.

"Hey, Jade, you alright there?" Roxy asked, now comfortably sitting.

Jade blinked. "Oh, yeah! Sorry, lost in thought for a sec there."

Roxy smiled. "Hey, you'd better get going! Someone's waiting for you past those stairs!"

"Oh..." Jade said, looking to the stairs. "Yeah, I suppose so. It was good to see you again, Roxy."

"Yeah, you too!" Roxy agreed. "And hey! If you see this Hussie dude, be sure to give him a good kick in the teeth for me! That is, if I don't catch up to you first!"

Jade nodded and gave a thumbs up, then proceeded to climb the newly appeared stairs to the next floor of the tower.

 


	8. Rolling Out the Welcome Mat

"Well, they may be a tad glib, but I think this couldn't be going better! Like the way the Nepeta girl wiped the floor with that Eridan kid with the harpoon gun. Priceless I tell you! What do you think, Ms. Paint?" Hussie asked as he gleefully spun about in his chair, awaiting the next fight to be staged.

He was expecting a sweet-voiced utterance of approval, but only heard a sigh. Something was up.

"Someone is here." Ms. Paint mumbled as she rubbed a hand on her temple. "Someone from... outside."

Hussie shook his head in disbelief. "Impossible. This realm is impenetrable. Only I can control who goes in and out."

Ms. Paint gave her 'companion' a stern look. She was quite serious.

The janitor heaved a sign and cracked his knuckles. "Fine, then. Send one of our friends to deal with the threat. I'll not have any interruptions."

Ms. Paint nodded and tapped a button on the console in front of them.

* * *

Dirk slowly levitated down towards a platform jutting out of the Velvet Tower. He looked about, trying to understand just what it was that they happened to be dealing with.

"Well, this has to be it. Dave's nearby, I can feel it." He uttered to himself. The Compendium not only had the power to store and recall Personas, but also to chronicle events, and thus he chose to narrate his actions for later reference. Plus, it was kind of cool to do. He felt quite like an agent on a mission; in fact, that was essentially his job at the moment.

Rolling up his sleeves on the shirt beneath his velvet vest, Dirk studied the tower. "This really is a construct of the Sea of Souls. Classic medieval architecture probably means the guest who conjured it was alive during those times. Yet it seems to be... shifting within. Perhaps the inside is malleable, but by what will? Could the former guest of this room still be alive hundreds of years later?"

A door frame suddenly flashed into view, and out onto the platform stepped a vaguely human-like figure.

"Looks that the residents don't take kindly to visitors." Dirk observed as he sized up the new arrival. The figure was over six feet tall, and was thoroughly wrapped in grey bandages that were hanging off in raggedy strips in various locations. The visible portions of the figure's skin were bony and chalk-white.

A screen blinked into view above the area. "I had to see it to believe it..." mumbled a voice emenating from the screen. "Well well, I knew I had gotten all the brats, but I didn't expect the dead one to pop in. You're with the Velvets, then, aren't you? Figures."

"Expecting me then?" Dirk asked as he twirled his katana in his left hand and levitated the Compendium in his right. "I'm a little disappointed, really. You honestly didn't expect one of us to show up?"

Hussie scoffed. "Don't be absurd. Of course I expected you to come. I suspected more than just one, in fact! Granted, I didn't expect a visit from your kind so soon, but I was prepared one way or another. Dork, meet the Peregrine Mendicant."

The badly-wrapped lanky figure that stood before work brandished a jet-black sword out of thin air, much like how Dirk and the others used to summon their weapons during their ordeal with Hemera.

"But before we begin... we might as well do this right before you're horribly mangled and slaughtered." Hussie taunted. A spotlight, emanating seemingly from the vast dim sky above, shone on Dirk suddenly. "Introducing... in his farewell debut... Hey, you aren’t on the list, buddy! The Almost Undead Bouncer, Dirk Strider!"

Dirk grinned and hopped slightly to get himself off the ground in order to levitate. "Farewell debut, huh? We'll see about that."

"Enjoy your short, short stay." Hussie taunted one last time before the screen flickered off. On cue, the so-named 'Peregrine Mendicant' charged forward at a speed unbegetting its lanky, bony structure. Dirk hastily swerved away in the air, smirking all the while, to get away from the attack.

Having missed the attack, the Mendicant brought forth a glowing card in an attempt to summon a Persona. Dirk stopped and observed the card as it descended, having more knowledge concerning the workings of the Arcana now that he was in his current position as an attendant. To his surprise, the card was not only in bad condition with much wear; the face was also blank. Yet still, a Persona was brought forth in an eruption of blue fire. The Persona was as odd as its owner; it looked as if it were a featureless marionette doll, made of charred wood and mangled string. The marionette clumsily launched a fireball at Dirk; again he swerved midair to avoid the slow-moving flame. As Dirk looked on, the fireball slowly changed course and resumed heading towards him, apparently intent on getting him at some point or another.

Dirk rolled his eyes and gracefully swung about the air as he dodged both the fireball and the Mendicant's sword strikes. "Alright, alright, enough of that." he taunted, flipping through the Compendium and settling on a Persona of the Fool arcana; "Shiki-Ouji!" he shouted, bringing forth a card of the Fool Arcana from the compendium and then slamming the book shut to shatter it.

Shiki-Ouji appeared before him, a tall, statue-like white figure made of what appeared to be strips of Japanese curse tags. Dirk floated about it and commanded it with a shout of "Navas Nebula!", prompting Shiki-Ouji to dispel a bright blue flash of light.

The Peregrine Mendicant crumpled from the force of the blast and rolled backwards. It almost felt too easy to Dirk, so he continued to cautiously levitate about as he observed his opponent. 

To his surprise, the Mendicant silently rose from its broken position and seemed to jerk back into normal shape with a few sickening crunching noises. Once finished, the Mendicant charged forward wordlessly to attack once more.

Dirk grunted as he brought his sword to meet his opponent's, surprised by the amount of force put behind its black blade. The force betrayed the chalky, frail look of the Peregrine Mendicant, whatever sort of creature it was. As a persona user, Dirk wondered if it was or had been a human; of course, there had been androids and even dogs that were capable of using a Persona, so there was a possibility that the Mendicant was something other than human.

Sensing that he was losing the deadlock, Dirk withdrew and barely dodged the following slash, rising into the air away from sword's reach. The Mendicant replied with another slow moving fireball, launched at Dirk.

Dirk flipped open the compendium and settled on the first fire-proof Persona he could think of; Saturnus of the Star Arcana. The fire-wreathed Persona burst into view between Dirk and the fireball, and was completely unfazed when the fireball washed over it.

Presented with an opportunity, Dirk dashed through the resulting embers towards his grounded opponent and struck hard, landing a few feet past the Mendicant. After a few moments, the Peregrine Mendicant collapsed, and its odd mannequin-like Persona faded away.

Dirk landed upon the ground once more and dismissed Saturnus, only to find himself struggling to stand as the tower shook violently beneath him. The shaking persisted only for a few seconds before subsiding.

The screen from before flashed above him, with a visibly angry Hussie on the face. "What have you _done_? Don't you do any sort of research before you go about busting the inhabitants of a world up?" he asked, shaking his fist. "You'll rue this, I promise you!" he vowed before blinking away, leaving Dirk alone.

Dirk looked at the towering structure before him. There were various openings above him, and with his power of flight, he would easily be able to ascend to the top. "Still..." he mumbled to himself as he paced back and forth. "Perhaps inspecting the inside, see more of what this man is doing, would be a better idea. In we go, then."

After shutting the compendium, the Velvet Room Attendant strode forward into the door before him to enter the second floor of the Velvet Tower.

 


	9. Seeing Double

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again a hiatus, but I'm back. Reading the end of Homestuck inspired me to hop back in and do some writing. I'm sorry about it taking so long, guys.

Terezi had been on cloud nine since she found herself in the Velvet Tower with her vision restored. Not only did she get to see her friends again after being holed up in the Velvet Room for months; she was also getting to see them for the first time in her life. She wondered, then, why Hemera had made her blind in the first place when the malefic entity split into twelve pieces so long ago. Honestly, she wondered why she and the eleven others were created as they had been in the first place. Why as teenagers and not grown adults, or young children that would be more easily inserted into civilization to thrive and develop emotions?

Pondering was something Terezi was glad to be able to do as she walked up the stairs to the second floor of the Velvet Tower. While being 'restored' in the Velvet Room, she and the others weren't quite conscious, or even sentient. Existence was a fleeting, vague thing that she was glad to come back into. She had many questions of course, but for now, she would relish in the fact that she was alive. Plus, her victory against Tavros on the first floor was bringing up her spirits. No longer was she the mandatory support beacon; she could handle herself in a fight with her newly-given sight.

The stairs ended at a door which Terezi opened. She stepped into an entirely purple room in contrast to the blue room she fought in earlier. The room was reminiscent of Sollux's shadow world; shifting platforms and a circuitry theme prevalent among large room. The sight was entirely new to Terezi, but recalled the feeling the room gave off; it reminded her of Dave, John and Vriska's faceoff with the possessed Gamzee, which had occurred immediately after they had rescued Sollux from his shadow. It wasn't a pleasant memory, but she couldn't help but miss the time they had spent in the odd computer-world.

Befitting the setting, Sollux stepped out of a door from the opposite side and immediately grimaced at the sight of the purple rendition of his shadow world. "Great. Just what I wanted to be reminded of."

"Sollux! Hey!" Terezi called from her end of the room, stepping over with her sheathed blade-cane in hand.

Sollux turned his head to the call and cautiously approached. "Hey. Have to admit... didn't expect you to win your first fight in here." He said. Terezi noted his mask; it was a very simple blue-and-red mask that meshed to the shape of his head in order for him to wear his 3D glasses on top of it.

"Wow. Hello to you too." Terezi shot back, crossing her arms. "I might not have fought much while everything was going down, but I got more done than you did; you and Karkat never even got to fight after we rescued you two!"

Sollux gave a shrug in reply. "Fair point, I guess. This stuff comes pretty naturally to me, though. I managed to beat Equius down on the first floor, and I'm feeling pretty confident; I can make that wish mine." he elaborated, taking the time to note his opponent’s mask as well. Terezi wore an elegant mask with a dragon wing motif; the mask had a white marble texture with gold trim, and was perfectly symmetrical.

Terezi grinned and drew her cane-sword, pointing it at Sollux. "Wish or no wish, doesn't matter to me! I'm just here to get to the top, and take down the villain responsible for interrupting our rest! I'll bring him to justice in my own way, and if that means I've gotta stomp you here, then that's what I'll do!"

Hussie's screen flickered into view a few feet above the two would-be-combatants. "...meddling piece of... what? Oh, we're on." Hussie spoke aloud, returning from off screen to his chair on-screen. "Right right, looks like we're all set to start here. No protests? Nothing?"

Both Terezi and Sollux shook their heads.

"Hm, right-o. Let's see here... got to set the mood." the omniscient janitor mumbled as he perused a sheet of paper. "Ah, here we are. Are you laughing at a blind girl!? The Blind Lady of Injustice, Terezi Pyrope!"

Terezi raised an eyebrow and lowered her glasses in skepticism. "You... know I can see now, right?"

"Details, details." Hussie mumbled, apparently quite on-edge for some reason. "And in this corner; One head’s better than two! The Walking Mood Swing, Sollux Captor!"

Sollux shrugged. "That's fair, I guess."

"Now, get on and fight! The tower will take care of the rule enforcement. I've got things to check on."

The screen then disappeared, leaving Terezi and Sollux without commentary.

Terezi grinned and dashed forward, slicing high at her opponent's neck to try and catch him off guard. Sollux leaned back and stepped off to the right, and then dodged Terezi's follow-up vertical slice with similar ease.

"So, _that's_ what you're good at. You have to slip up at some point!" Terezi taunted, continuing her assault. Another high slice flew right over Sollux's head as he ducked, but instead of backing away to dodge again, he summoned and crushed his Persona card.

"Dionysus!" Sollux shouted. His persona appeared behind him, and Terezi got a look at it for the first time; Dionysus had skin of red and blue, each color covering one half of the Persona's body. Dionysus wore a toga and a robot mask, and held two golden cups which were glowing as Sollux charged an attack through Dionysus' power.

Terezi elected to try and keep Sollux from charging whatever he was preparing, but too late; Sollux looked up and ripped his glasses off of his face, making two beams erupt from his eyes; one red and one blue. Terezi caught the full brunt of the beams and was flung back several yards, skidding to a halt near the opposite wall.

As she stood up, she could see that Sollux's eyes were smoking like the barrels of a recently fired gun. He had a smirk on his face as he cracked his neck. "Not bad, right?" he asked aloud. "I can channel two different elements of magic at the same time with Dionysus. Twice the punch, you know?"

"I'm more of a fan of a good old-fashioned cane whacking myself." Terezi shot back as she called her Persona card into view. "Speaking of which; stand still for a bit,"

Terezi sliced her card in half to summon Athena, and smiled when she looked upon her Persona again. Just as cool as it looked on the first floor; Athena resembled a statue of Justice cloaked in red, complete with a blindfold and a set of scales.

With Athena out and ready to play, Terezi made another dash towards her opponent. Sollux tried to catch her with another dual-eye-beam, but Terezi expected a repeated attack and ducked out of the way while Athena glided above the beams. Once close, she began swinging again; one slice high that Sollux leaned away from, and then one low that Sollux managed to jump over. Terezi then willed Athena to smack Sollux with its scales like a bludgeon, but Dionysus flew forward and caught the scales in its hands, preventing the blow from landing.

Sollux grunted and delivered a sweeping kick, knocking Terezi off of her feet. With their mental concentration disrupted, the deadlock between the Personas ended and Athena flew backwards. Sollux gazed down at Terezi as she laid on the floor, and launched another eye beam.

With a gasp, Terezi rolled out of the way just in time, leaving some of her hair singed. She sprung to her feat and leapt a few feet away, bringing Athena to bear and starting a new strategy; "Hama!" she shouted, summoning a ring of curse tags to surround Sollux.

Sollux leapt forward out of the ring of tags, only to find himself in yet another circle. He leapt away once more, and to no surprise, found himself in the predicament yet again. Terezi was rapidly firing off Hama spells in order to keep him moving around.

After his fifth leap, Sollux realized that a sixth circle was not forming. He looked up just in time for Terezi’s cane-sword sheath to strike him in the face. Sollux stumbled back and his glasses fell to the ground, shattered. His eye-beams were no longer an option, since the glasses served as a sort of battery for Dionysus’ power to create the beam attacks.

In a fit of desperation, Sollux reached into his pockets and launched a hail of shuriken at Terezi. Aiming to defy his expectations and win the element of surprise, however, Terezi simply rushed forward with Athena in front of her, taking the hits from the shuriken with her Persona as she got in close-quarters with Sollux.

She swung again with her sword-sheathe, which he managed to dodge by stepping back. The swing was mostly a ruse, however, covering for Athena rushing forward to slam Sollux with its scales; this time Dionysus wasn’t quick enough to intercept the blow, and Sollux was launched back. Terezi gave chase and slashed at her opponent in midair with her sword, landing with him and sheathing her blade.

Sollux groaned on the ground as Dionysus faded away. “Alright, fine. You win.” He grumbled, sitting up with a pained grunt. “But I’ll be back in the game before long. I’ll just... kick back in this weird invisible cube or whatever.”

“Way to be a good sport.” Terezi teased, smiling at Sollux. “Don’t worry. I’m off to bring our captor - no pun intended - to justice!”

Sollux gave Terezi a thumbs up and reclined against the invisible wall of his loser’s cube, to which Terezi nodded before she turned to head up the stairs. She noted the silence; what was keeping Hussie busy?

She decided to let it be and continue upstairs.   


Jade stepped into her room on the third floor, ready for her third battle. She was on a roll so far, and she didn’t intend to stop quite yet. She had her victory against Roxy and then Nepeta, and now she wondered who would be up next. She secretly wanted a shot at Dave, if only to have the bragging rights for later; they were valuable bargaining chips in a relationship after all, and she did like to mess with him.

The person who stepped into the green-colored room, however, was someone she didn’t quite know. It was a human-like creature dressed in green, whose head was a green skull with green swirls on the cheeks. Despite the menacing design, the creature wore a smile on its face.

“Hello! I don’t believe we’ve met before. I’m Calliope.”


	10. The Splintered Tragedy

Jade had to admit that Calliope looked much more frightening than she sounded. In fact, she sounded rather sweet and kind. Jade noted that Calliope didn't wear a mask; did that mean she was a part of this world in the first place? Or perhaps the skull-thing _was_ her face?

"Hi there, Calliope. My name's Jade. it's nice to meet you!" she offered simply, deciding to decipher the particulars later when they presented themselves.

Calliope smiled again and gave a sincere wave. "Jade. What a pretty name." she mused. "Well, Jade. Do you know where we are?"

Jade looked at the room in detail. What she saw was a green-colored version of the room where they fought Shadow Kanaya months ago inside the marble labyrinth. She remembered the place fondly, recalling the heartfelt discussion she had with Rose and John while they were there.

"This is... well, it would take a lot to explain. What do you know about why we're here? I think it'd be easier to start with what you know." Jade surmised.

Calliope replied with a simple shrug. "I really don't know anything. All I know is that... Well, I feel like I _have_ to get to the top. Not sure why, but it feels right. The guy narrating everything says we can get a wish but... I don't know about all that. I just have to see the top."

"Okay..." Jade replied, a little disappointed. She figured Calliope might have some sort of amazing story to tell about how she got here. "Um... Where are you from?"

Again, Calliope shrugged. "I dunno. All I know is that I have to reach the top of the tower. Maybe I'll find out there?"

"Maybe. I'm really not sure about all this and how it works." Jade answered. "So, you don't know anything about where you're from? Not a memory to speak of?"

"Outside of popping up here? Nope, not a one." Calliope replied bluntly. She seemed oddly at peace with her predicament.

Jade let out a soft huff as she pondered Calliope's situation. It was clear to her, anyway; Calliope _had_ to be a product of the world of the Velvet Tower, and maybe even a creature created by Hussie himself. She seemed so sweet, however, and Jade wondered why she wasn't a malefic creature bent on their destruction. Perhaps Hussie didn't create the tower, but chose the location, and Calliope was here before him. It didn't explain why she had no memories, however.

Shaking herself out of her deep thought, Jade looked down at Calliope. "Well, look. If you really need to get to the top, then I won't stop you. You can go on ahead." she offered. She was fairly confident of Dave, John, and Rose's ability to get to the top before anyone else, and if she was delayed by a single match it wouldn't matter much. She was skeptical of Calliope's disposition, but was simultaneously charmed and intrigued by it. How could someone with so little to their being be so positive and happy in the face of what was a rather nihilistic conundrum?

"But... that's against the rules. I don't think they'll let us through anyway if we don't fight." Calliope reasoned. "Don't you _want_ to fight me? Isn't that why you're here?"

"I mean, not really, no! I don't wanna fight anyone. I get to see all my old friends again, but I'd rather that we could just hang out and go for coffee or something. Not all this!" Jade protested. “Like you said, the only way to go up is to fight, but you’re just so sweet, so I-“

Calliope shook her head. “It’s okay, Jade. You’re really kind. It’s just that I need to earn this myself. So, what do you say?”

Jade, still fairly confused, huffed and nodded. “Alright, Calliope. If that’s what you want. I just hope that we can meet again after this, and maybe be friends. I know some people who would just adore you!” she called out, recalling Roxy with a smile.

“Then maybe I’ll wish for that.” Calliope offered with a smile.

An awkward pause followed. “That’s odd... where’s Hussie and his yelling?” Jade asked aloud.

“I’m not sure. He was there for the last two times.” Calliope observed. She clenched her fist to bring into being her weapon; a simple, white wand. “I guess we’ll have to get started without him.”

Jade nodded and summoned her assault shotgun. “I think you’re right. Good luck, Calliope!”

Calliope smiled and closed her eyes, bringing into view her Persona card. It depicted a woman surrounded by a wreath of leaves, numbered ‘XXI’; from what she had learned from Rose, the card was that of the World.

This surprised Jade; that was the card that Dave had called when he summoned Orpheus to defeat Hemera. Did that mean that she held similar power? If so, Jade was admittedly a bit frightened of what sort of power that entailed.

“Come, Moirae!” Calliope called out, summoning into being three elderly women in plain robes, each of them strung together by a long string that they simultaneously were working on with a spindle and scissors. Though they were three figures, they appeared to be one Persona.

“Sirius!” Jade called out in response, blasting her own card with her shotgun to bring her Persona into view. She raised her hand to get off the first move, but Calliope had already beat her to it with a silently-casted spell that sent erupting pillars of white light cascading towards her.

Jade leapt back and changed her plan; “Makarakarn!” she shouted, enveloping herself and Sirius in a bubble of energy. The pillars of light washed over the bubble and were then flung back at Calliope.

Calliope stood her ground and raised her wand, catching the waves of light with the tip of the wand and flinging them away harmlessly.

Taking a breath, Jade went on the offense with a shout of “Bufudyne!”. Sirius conjured up a large floating icicle and sent it flying at Calliope. Jade knelt down and shot at the flying icicle, shattering the icicle into shards.

With a hushed breath of her own, Calliope held up her hand and projected a field of force to fight back against the torrent of ice shards. She gritted her fanged teeth as the shards pressed up against the force-field, and let out a strained shout as she expulsed the field. The shards shattered further into snow, filling the room with slowly falling snowflakes.

Jade was a bit dumbstruck at the power that Calliope wielded. She had made her opponent struggle with the ice-shard storm, that much was true, but she was still able to deflect it entirely, and all without an utterance. It was difficult to tell if that was the power of Calliope’s Persona, or Calliope herself. After all, she obviously wasn’t human; who knew what sort of innate powers she held?

Calliope made the next move by waving her wand in a circle, splitting herself into several mirror images around the room to surround Jade. They began to approach, pointing their wands at Jade.

Without the time to decipher which image was the real Calliope, Jade knelt down and called out for Sirius. “Mabufudyne!” she commanded. Above her and Sirius formed a halo of ice that began picking up spinning speed. As the speed increased, the ring began to release bolts of ice at the illusions.

One of the Calliopes dodged an icebolt instead of dissipating when hit, cluing Jade in on who was real and who wasn’t. Shotgun in hand, Jade ran forward and shot at Calliope several times.

Calliope was caught off guard and stumbled back from the first and second shot, but managed to recover and reflect the third shot with a wall of force. The shot ricocheted back at Jade with increased velocity and struck her hard, causing her to fall back.

As Jade stumbled back up onto her feet, she saw several homing missiles made of white light rocketing towards her. She leapt out of the way to avoid the first two that reached her, and instinct took over to meet the third missile; she lifted her shotgun and shot at it, dispersing into several smaller missiles.

“Oh, come o-“

The missiles collided with Jade and exploded all at once and flung her into the wall on the opposite side of the room. She forced herself up to her feet, determined to not let the fight go out in a landslide in Calliope’s favor. “I have to say, you’re pretty good at this. You have had a lot of practice.”

Calliope shook her head. “No, not really. This is only my third time doing this. Wasn’t it this easy for you the first time you fought? Didn’t it all just come to you naturally?”

Jade gaped, dumbfounded. “Wow. You must be pretty special then... I wish we knew more about you and where you came from. It took me months to become as powerful as I am now.” She explained. “I’m kinda out of practice, though...”

“Well, I think you’re doing just fine! Now, let’s finish this, shall we?” Calliope asked, thrusting her wand forward once more.

Jade immediately mustered what strength she had and leapt out of the way of the beam that erupted from Calliope’s wand. She rolled into place and aimed her shotgun, firing off a few shots.

Calliope swiped left and right to deflect the bullets, but was caught off guard when Sirius came running to tackle her. Jade followed with a few more shots that caught Calliope in her stunned state, but evidently weren’t enough to finish the job; Calliope’s Persona gave off a pulse of energy, throwing Sirius off and making Jade skid back a few feet.

Dusting herself off, Calliope gave a smile and a wink before twirling her wand again, launching off another homing missile. Jade rolled to the right to dodge the missile, but the missile compensated for this by twisting around and striking Jade mid-dodge.

Pushed past her limit, Jade rolled away as Sirius faded from view. Calliope approached as Jade lay groaning, and dispelled a silent healing spell to bring Jade back up.

“Ow.” Jade mumbled as she got up from the floor, finding herself entrapped in an invisible cube. “You know, this is a lot less comfortable on the other way around.” She observed.

“I’m sorry!” Calliope offered, placing her hands on the other side of the invisible cube. “I guess I got a little carried away there. Are you okay?”

Jade nodded with a smile. “Oh yeah, I’m fine! You were great, Calliope!” she admitted sincerely. “You really caught me off guard there; I didn’t expect you to be so strong. You sure you’ve never done this before?”

“Positive. I mean, besides the fights before this. It just feels right and natural. Kind of like breathing, or talking.” Calliope replied. “Maybe I’ll find out more when- I mean, if I make it to the top. I have to get going now; I hope to see you again!”

Calliope gave a wave and then made her way to the door. Jade took a deep breath and watched the screens on the walls of the invisible cube.

“Wait a minute...” she muttered as she focused on one of the images. Dave walked into a green-tinted room, and standing on the other end was a figure quite similar to Calliope in appearance. This one, however, had a glaring frown as opposed to a smile...

 

* * *

 

“Hey, what’s the haps?” Dave called from his end of the room. “Don’t think I know you, so like, make with the intros.”

Dave’s opponent flashed an evil grin and gave a curt reply. “I’m Caliborn; but you, peasant, can call me ‘My Lord’.”

 


	11. Beginning of the Fall

Dave cocked an eyebrow at the figure before him as he made his arrogant demand. "Yeah, uh... no. Don't think so kid. The only one called 'Lord' round here is me. Heh... Lord of the Fly, am I right?"

Caliborn merely huffed and brought into existence a golden cane with an eerily glowing green orb on the top of it. He began to pat it idly in his palm and looked up at Dave. "Just like the others. But you, I'll show a mercy. Fall to your knees and I won't take my time smearing your pathetic face against the walls."

With a scoff, Dave brought his turntable-sword into being and held it firmly. "Wow, kid, you've got some issues. Look, I'm just gonna go ahead and stomp you so I can go chill with peeps I actually like. That cool with you?"

The room fell silent and Caliborn said nothing. Instead he lurched forward with his cane, swinging it forward with an unexpected swing that caught Dave off-guard. The cane smashed into his face with what felt like the force of a freight train, and Dave flew back into the nearby wall. His impact with the wall caused it to crack and partially crumble, and he fell to the ground limply.

"Shit!" Dave groaned as he brought himself up from the ground. It was like Shadow Equius all over again. He readied himself and scratched his turntable to retract his blade, then called Hermes into view silently. "Okay, let's try this again.

Caliborn simply chuckled and brought into view a Persona card, bearing a face that Dave found familiar.

_Shit. That's the Arcana that Philemon gave me. That's... the World._

He noted that the card was upside down, but certainly was the World that Dave recalled so vividly from their last battle with Hemera. Suddenly Caliborn's immense power from a single strike made sense; but why was he able to summon it in the Velvet Tower if the rules had been 'suspended'? Was it possible that he simply held the World to begin with?

Who _was_ this kid?

Caliborn clenched the card in his fist and shattered it, bringing into view a menacingly tall creature shrouded by a black cloak. From the cloak the figure produced a crude, jagged scythe. "Say hello to Moros." Caliborn bragged with a smile. "And say goodnight, you piece of shit!"

Moros lunged forward with a horizontal swipe of its scythe. Dave rolled under the slice and ran past Moros, while Hermes flew over the swipe to follow Dave. With a yell, Dave swung down at Caliborn. His opponent blocked the blow and held Dave in a deadlock, which Dave exploited by calling Hermes to attack. "Hit em! Agidyne!"

Flames erupted from underneath Caliborn as Dave leapt away from the deadlock. The cinders died down and Caliborn stood, visibly injured and much, much angrier. Stepping back, Caliborn flipped his cane in a circle until it shifted form in a flash, becoming a large golden assault rifle that looked far too large for Caliborn to wield. Yet wield it he did, and with one hand to boot.

Dave stared at Caliborn for a moment, his half-blade held limply. Suddenly Moros made another dash forward as Caliborn aimed his gun. "Fuck!" Dave yelled aloud as he began to run.

Erupting out of Caliborn's rifle were not bullets, but veritable fireballs that seared the green room beyond recognition. Dave continued to run while Hermes followed, but he wouldn't be able to run forever between Caliborn's hail of fire and Moros' deadly swipes. Running out of options, he began closing in with his running circles until he was dangerously close to his opponent.

Caliborn flipped his gun around once more to revert it back to a cane and took a swing at Dave. Dave ducked underneath the swing and stabbed forward with his blade, scratching the turntable to fully extend the blade to increase the force of the attack. To his relief, the attack connected, and the blade stabbed right through Caliborn, who shrieked in pain.

"You... fucking... moronic... peasant!" Caliborn shouted as he grasped the hilt of Dave's sword. He slowly pulled himself forward, impaling himself further until he got close enough to Dave to bite his shoulder.

Dave screamed as Caliborn's teeth sank into his skin. The standard shimmering glow that emanated from wounds in the Tower shone from his new injury, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Dave managed to punch Caliborn off of him, withdrawing his blade from him in tandem as he stepped away.

Caliborn's chest similarly shimmered as Dave's blade was yanked out of it, but he still carried on. Moros approached and swung again from behind Dave; a swing that Dave barely dodged as the scythe buried itself deep in the floor of the room. Dave was thankful that Moros seemed to be entirely physical-based; with the devastating attacks from both Caliborn and his Persona, having to worry about magic attacks on top of everything would've been too much.

Dave's opponent continued to be a threat, however, bringing his scepter down in a manner similar to Moros. Dave deflected the blow and launched a fireball at Caliborn. Caliborn held out his hand in retaliation and _caught_ the fireball, struggling to fight back against its energy. With an almost bestial roar, Caliborn lurched forward and launched the caught fireball back at Dave. The ball collided with Dave and sent him reeling back, and Hermes disappeared as well.

"You know, I expected more out of you. You had a lot more spunk that the others I fought on the way up here." Caliborn taunted as he approached. "But the game ends here. I can't kill you here; not yet; but you'll have a good front-row seat to watch my ascent."

Dave groaned and retracted his blade, using the shortened sword as a crutch to stay on his knees. "What... what's your gig?" he asked, trying to think of a last-minute ace in the hole. "What's your MO for getting to the top?"

"Simple. To become a god." Caliborn mused. "I remember nothing and know nothing of beyond what came to me when I woke up here. All I know is that my destiny lies at the top, and _you..._ you are in my way."

Caliborn swung his cane like a golf club, launching Dave up into the air. Moros, floating behind the two of them, swung its scythe in an arc and caught Dave on the blade much like Dave had done to Caliborn earlier.

It wasn't a real, life-threatening injury, but the pain was so very real. Dave struggled to speak or even breathe.

"Enjoy the view, _peasant_. Your lord goes to ascend."

Dave's vision began to black out. He found respite from the pain in unconsciousness.

* * *

Rose let her needles dissipate as Terezi fell on the other side of the room. She smiled and went over to Terezi, offering a hand but being stopped by an invisible cube. She had almost forgot.

Terezi merely smiled and sat up. "That was fun! I forgot how great all this stuff was. It's even better now that I can see!"

"Truly? I had not realized you had regained your sight. I suppose Dave was right about the strange properties of the Velvet Room." Rose reasoned. "I had just assumed you were fighting me whilst blind."

"You give me too much credit!" Terezi protested, though her smile showed she enjoyed the compliment. "So, what do you want to wish for?"

Rose blinked, a blank expression on her face. "Wish?" she asked bluntly. She had forgotten all about it. "Oh, Terezi, don't be naive. I don't want to win the tournament."

Terezi tilted her head. "Then... what DO you want?"

Rose flashed a knowing grin. "I want to tear the place apart, of course. I refuse to be corralled and shuffled into line by our 'gracious host'. Since he seems to have recently been distracted, I believe that now might be my best chance to ascertain how I might do this. I will have to find out on the next floor before my opponent appears."

With a huff, Terezi gave a wave. "Well, okay..." she mumbled. She was always a stickler for the rules, even in otherworldly fighting tournaments. "Just be careful, alright?"

"Of course." Rose replied as she made her way to the door and up the stairs to the fourth floor of the Velvet Tower.

She opened the door she came into a brightly orange colored room, a replica of Vriska's shadow dungeon; the "Prison of Manipulation". Still quite symbolic, much like nearly everything in the other world.

Though she hadn't cared much for Vriska while she was still 'alive' due to their contention over John's affections, Rose had moved on past such things and had come to respect the memory of Vriska. Though she did indeed fit the bill of a classic 'bitch', Rose couldn't deny Vriska's drive and desire to get things done regarding the case happening last year. And despite her jealousy at the time, John did seem happy when he and Vriska were together. Rose could find a smile from that.

The other door opened, and Rose cursed under her breath. She had wasted her time recalling past memories and not investigating the room closely. The person who stepped out of the door surprised her however; befitting the room, Vriska stepped into view.

"Oh. Rose. Hey." Vriska called out from the other side of the room.

Rose blinked and walked forward. "Hey."

"You don't look pumped to be here." Vriska observed. "Not that I blame you. It's fun beating up on people, but I'm not really digging the whole 'cooped in' deal. I'm trying to think of a way to-"

"-Break out?" Rose asked. A smile crossed her face at the same time as Vriska's.

Vriska uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on her hips. "Well, well, Lalonde, it looks like we agree on something for once. You got a plan?"

"Not at the moment. I was thinking of stopping and observing the room." Rose proposed. "Our 'host' doesn't seem to be present at the moment, so I assume we have all the time in the world."

Looking around at the room in disgust, Vriska shook her head. "I was thinking of throwing dice until one of the walls crumbled. You think that would w-"

Again Vriska was caught off, this time by Hussie's announcement screen appearing in the screen. Amidst the static, Hussie's shouts as he flipped switches and tossed around various items filled the room. "I don't _care_ how high up he is! Just stall him! Things have to go to plan so- Oh, hey, look at that. The two troublemakers pop into the same room. I guess it was always a possibility, but I probably should have prevented this in the grand scheme of things. No matter, one of you has to beat the other and continue on. After all, there's no way out."

As if on cue, a section of the room's wall exploded. Out of it stepped (or floated) Dirk, casting away the slowly dissolving body of a black, mannequin-like figure. "There's your... what was he called again? The 'Aimless Renegade', right? Whatever. Your move, Huss."

Hussie clutched at the sides of his head and yelled as the screen suddenly blinked away.

Dirk floated over and touched down on the floor. "Hey, ladies. Good to see some friendly faces. Missed me?"

"Dirk!" Rose and Vriska exclaimed at the same time, both surprised for different reasons. Rose beamed and spoke next. "I thought you were... well..."

"Weren't you supposed to be stuck in the Velvet Room?" Vriska asked.

Dirk shook his head at the two girls. "Don't get used to seeing me. This is kind of an extraneous circumstance and I'm on a mission to put a stop to it. I wanted to find Dave first and go from there, but this'll do. How does some good old fashioned establishment busting sound? I'll explain the details later."

Rose and Vriska looked at each other and nodded. Rose then crossed her arms and thought. "We will have to find the others. Whimsical as he can be, underestimating our host might not be the wisest move."

"I agree. Let's bust everyone out." Vriska affirmed as she cheerfully cracked her knuckles. "Just leave all of the establishment-busting to me."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since not all of the characters are certain get their arena style titles shown before the story ends, I'm going to just go ahead and post them here for those who are curious.
> 
> __
> 
> Who you gonna call? Not him! The Clueless Storm of Comedy, John Egbert!
> 
> I warned you, dude! It just keeps happening! The Hapless Hopeless Hero, Dave Strider!
> 
> Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh. The Eldritch Stagnant Needle, Rose Lalonde!
> 
> She’s got you in her sights! The Scientific Deadshot Crybaby, Jade Harley!
> 
> A witch in business or the kitchen! The Heiress of Cake and Cruelty, Jane Crocker!
> 
> Why would you want to be sober? The Charming Alcoholic Rogue, Roxy Lalonde!
> 
> Hey, you aren’t on the list, buddy! The Almost Undead Bouncer, Dirk Strider! 
> 
> She’ll exhume you when she’s done! The Bubbly Tomb Raider, Aradia Megido!
> 
> He can’t be that dangerous, right? The Extreme Handicap Zone, Tavros Nitram!
> 
> One head’s better than two! The Walking Mood Swing, Sollux Captor!
> 
> Someone’s looking crabby! The Cancerous Attitude Adjustment, Karkat Vantas!
> 
> Oh, this is going on my shipping wall! The Coquettish Love Machine, Nepeta Leijon!
> 
> She knows how to get out blood stains! The Xanatos of Fashion, Kanaya Maryam!
> 
> Are you laughing at a blind girl?! The Blind Lady of Injustice, Terezi Pyrope!
> 
> All of the irons are in the fire! The Web of Lies and Slander, Vriska Serket!
> 
> You gotta be STRONG to beat him! The Butler of Total Control, Equius Zahhak!
> 
> It’s a motherfuckin’ miracle, bro! The Mind-Numbing Juggalo, Gamzee Makara!
> 
> Bow to me, you worthless peasants! The Friendzoned Fedora Fish, Eridan Ampora!
> 
> You’re just so cute when you’re dead! The Imperial Radiant Doormat, Feferi Peixes!


	12. Bustin' Out!

John ascended to the fifth floor of the tower, finding himself stepping into a room such bright white that it nearly blinded him for a moment. When his eyes adjusted, he found himself recalling the area; it was a pure white version of the Arcade of Asphodel, the place in which they made their progress in the mystery of the previous year. However, the room was open like the last four, and the arcade machines were plastered over with white and were inactive. It was likely that they were just decorations.

The door on the other side of the room opened, and out stepped a face more familiar than John could have ever hoped for. Jade walked into the room, looking about before recognizing her twin brother and running over.

"John! I can't say I'm excited to fight you, but it's really good to see you." Jade said as she absent-mindedly picked at the mask on her face.

John smiled. "I guess I feel the same way, but still, you have to admit that all of this kind of exciting! Besides the uh, soul crushing rejection bits, but that's not as important." he half-joked. "Do you have any idea what you're going to wish for?"

Jade tapped her chin. "If this wish thing is even legit, then I guess I would wish for all of friends to come back. Sans Hemera of course. They don't deserve that. All in all, I just miss them a lot." she answered. "I suppose that's... kind of selfish on my end, when I could wish for world peace or something, but... I dunno, I feel like that may be out of our friendly overseer's power to grant. At least our friends are a part of this realm just like he seems to be. I would guess that means he can do it."

"I was thinking of wishing for the same thing, really." John agreed. "Even if it's all of us just fighting, it's great to see everyone again. I couldn't wish for anything else."

The two of them paused for a moment to consider what the other had said, and then Jade spoke again. "In that case, I guess it doesn't matter which of us wins, does it?"

John shook his head. "I don't think any of us, not even any of the shadow students, would wish for anything else. That just leaves our two mystery guests. I haven't seen either of them on the screens inside the invisible cubes, but I uh... kinda took a nap after the fight I lost. Long story."

Jade laughed briefly, but then blinked as she realized something. "John, that's just the thing I wanted to tell you! I met one of the two mystery combatants, and I saw Dave battle the other one. Their names are Calliope and Caliborn, and I think they both lost their memories. They don't know why they're here and who they really are. I don't even think they're human, because they sure don't look like it. All I know is that they're incredibly powerful. Calliope beat me in our fight, and Caliborn seriously did Dave in." she explained. "I know we can't get truly hurt here, but... I really hope he's alright."

"I'm sure he is, Jade. He's tough. Tougher than all of us, for sure." John assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder for good measure. "So, what do you think these guys are if they're not human?"

"I don't know... Shadows, maybe?" Jade guessed. "Maybe they are humans, and Hussie is just tricking us or playing tricks on our eyes or something. I'm not about to trust just anything that I see here when he's in charge. In any case, Calliope seemed sweet enough, but Caliborn was just... evil!"

John nodded. "Then I guess that's one person we need to keep from the top, no matter what his deal is. I just wish we could work together like we did in Asphodel." he said, looking around at the room they were in. "It's not quite the same, but it does bring back a few memories, right?"

"Yeah, it really does." Jade agreed with a smile. "Still, that's not important right now. We need to get moving so we can get to the bottom... or, uh, top, of this. Hussie seems distracted by something, and-"

Jade's sentence was interrupted by a large chunk of a nearby wall exploding. From beyond the debris stepped Vriska, followed by Rose and Dirk. Jade gasped; it was good to see Rose and Vriska again of course, even considering their unexpected entrance, but to see Dirk from beyond the dead was something else entirely.

"N-no way!" John called out. Seeing Vriska again so soon bothered him, but he could put that away to greet Dirk. "We thought you were-"

Dirk held up a hand. "I'm probably going to have to explain this to everyone we find, but... I kinda am. It's weird. Suffice to say, I got iced, but the guys in the Velvet Room swiped me up from an endless oblivion and put me to work. Part of my job is solving disturbances like this. It just so happens that by coincidence, my first job is taking care of you guys here."

John frowned. "Still... it's good to see you here."

"Likewise, little man." Dirk said as he ruffled John's hair. "Some of our other friends are clearing out the lower floors right now; there are passageways and staircases all over the outside of the castle that can only be accessed by someone who can break the barriers or fly. I happen to be able to do both, so it's on us to break everyone out of the tower, defeat the weird little minions that Hussie is sending at us, and reach the top so we can stop his plans."

Jade tilted her head. "What is his plan, then? I can't imagine it's something very good."

Rose stepped forward to speak next. "We aren't entirely sure as of yet, but I have noted some patterns here. Do you remember the pattern of the room colors as you ascended the floors?"

"First was blue, then purple, then, uh... green, right? Then after that was orange, and now we're in white." John answered. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Do you not remember literature classes, John?" Rose asked, smirking in light of knowing the answer for certain. "If my predictions are correct, the next room will be a vivid violet-colored velvet... A 'Velvet Room' so to speak. The last floor will be made of black. If our accommodating Janitor indeed created this place, then he is recreating the classic gothic novel, _The Masque of the Red Death_."

"Oh!" Jade proclaimed as she recognized the pattern at last. "So... what does that make him? The Prince? The Red Death itself?"

Rose crossed her arms. "My guess is that his role is that of the Prince. That leaves the position of the Red Death open for filling... And I wager that may have something to do with his mysterious guests."

"Did you meet them too?" Jade asked the group standing in the hole in the wall.

Vriska and Rose shook their heads, but from behind walked in Jake, Jane, and Roxy. All three of them seemed to have tear stains on their cheeks; it didn't surprise John or Jade in the slightest, considering they must have only just been reunited with Dirk. "All three of us fought one or the other." Roxy explained. "They're... ridiculously strong. Dirk isn't sure what they are or where they're from, but they're definitely a threat if the wish thing is for real."

"Then what do we do?" John asked. "How can we help?"

Dirk looked around. "Aradia and Gamzee are on the ramparts below causing all sorts of trouble, but Hussie's bound to realize soon that I slipped off to punch more holes in his fancy castle. When he gets his act together and focuses on me, I'm going to be sort of a beacon for all the weird skeleton things he's been throwing at us. When that happens, I'm not going to be very safe to be around, but I can at least clear the way upwards for you guys." he explained. "Plus... I'll have some help." he added with a smile, looking at Jane, Jake, and Roxy. "In the meantime, I need you three-" he said, pointing at Rose, Jade, and John. "-to go pick up Dave on the fourth floor. You four are our strongest fighters, and we're going to need the four of you together on the top floor."

"We do work best when we work together!" Jade proclaimed happily. "We'll get going right now! Good luck, Dirk!"

With a smile and a half-hearted salute, Dirk nodded to his three companions and then proceeded to ascend the tower to the sixth floor. John, Jade, and Rose were left with Vriska.

"So... what are you going to do?" John asked Vriska.

This elicited a mischievous grin from Vriska. "What I do best; blow some shit up. We still have to find some of the others, but when we're all together, we're going to make sure none of the freaky guys below can get to you while you take on the big guy upstairs. Still... save a chunk for me, yeah? I was having a good nap before he dragged me here." she explained before locking eyes with Rose. "Also... take care of him."

Rose nodded, and Vriska leapt down the staircase to the lower ramparts before John could reply.

"Come on. Let's go find Dave and get ourselves out of here." Jade affirmed. John and Rose nodded and followed her to the lower floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh geez oh God I can't believe I never went back and finished this
> 
> Hey guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, again I apologize for taking so long with this. College is really hard, my life has changed in more ways than you can possibly imagine, but throughout it all I'm still very much in love with good ol' Homestuck. Things have changed since the pause and the ending, but I still love it all the same. I hope you guys continue to enjoy Arena even though I am shortening the fluff considerably. In the end, I found it just wasn't incredibly important, and it was more important to get on with the story I had in mind.
> 
> If you have any questions, let me know. I can't say that this won't go on hiatus again because it very well might, but at least for the moment I am very much happy to work on it again.


	13. Siege on the Velvet Tower

At first, there was a comforting darkness, perfect for a nap. Then there was a distant noise, something like a far-off crash that drew closer and closer until Dave realized it wasn't just a sound from his dreams. The loudest one shook him awake, making the blackness of his vision give way to a burning orange room. 

_What the hell...?_

Dave struggled to his feet, still sore from his thorough thrashing by Caliborn. He looked around to get a better feel of his surroundings, and to perhaps understand the chaos that was unfolding. His eyes were drawn to a hole in the wall; he didn't think that were possible, given Hussie's strict control over the place, but he wasn't about to complain about it. 

_Guess Rose figured out some way to break this place apart... just like her._

Suddenly a skeletal figure flew into the room through the hole in the wall, and began disintegrating in front of him. Dave summoned his turntable sword, and proceeded through the hole in the wall.

"Dave-motherfucking-Strider. Welcome to the party, brother!" shouted a face that Dave did not expect to be happy to see. Gamzee stood there, wielding the two flaming clubs that had once brought such dread to the Persona users less than a year ago.

Dave waved to Gamzee. "Whoa, man, talk about overdue reunions. How've you been since the whole... y'know, death thing?"

Gamzee grinned in response. "Never felt more alive, my man!" he replied. Another skeletal mannequin-figure approached from the lower ramparts; Gamzee turned and lazily swung one of his clubs with tremendous force that knocked the creature off to the ground below. "Listen, we're gonna bust out of here and bring the fight up to the big boss upstairs. Figure we could use the help of the man who made it all happen back then."

"Who's we? I see you, but not-"

"Dave!"

Dave was tackled from behind, reminding him of how sore he was when he hit the ground with the weight of someone else on top of him. He managed to turn over from under his assailant, finding himself to be looking up at Jade's face. Jade laughed, kissed him on the cheek, and rolled off of him. "We were just about to come down here and wake you up!"

"Who's we?" Dave asked again, trying to mask his excitement with an aloof attitude. "Everyone keeps saying we. Did everyone except for me break out of here?"

"More or less." called John from behind the scene. "You'll never guess who showed up! Dirk's here!"

The revelation from John struck Dave to the core. "Oh. Shit. He's here like, now? But... I thought he was supposed to... ah, shit." he mumbled. Despite Dirk's assurance months ago that he was comfortable with the position in the Velvet Room, Dave still felt partly, if not entirely responsible, for Dirk's death in the Temple of Hemera. Seeing him was going to be tough, to say the least.

A hand patted Dave on the shoulder, making him almost jump from surprise. He turned about to see that the hand belonged to Rose. "Don't fret, Dave. It might make you happy to see how comfortable he is in his current role."

Dave sighed and got up to his feet. "Yeah... saying hi is the least I could do. Where's he at, anyway?"

"He's upstairs, trying to clear a path for us." John explained. "He says this place is going to be swarming in those mannequin things pretty soon, so we need to get to the top. We'll find Hussie there."

"And then we can get to the bottom of this!" Jade affirmed. "I'm tired of being dragged around, being made to  ight my friends. Plus, with the four of us together, I'm sure we could stand up to Caliborn!"

With an embarrassed grunt of pain, Dave nodded to his friends. "Alright. Let's get to the-"

One of Hussie's television screens shot into view in the nearby air, blocking the view of the endless expanse of purple-and-blue that was seen from the ramparts. "I said stall him! Send them all! The-" he yelled at someone off screen as the video began to fizzle in and out of incomprehensible static. "-most at the top! They were supposed to st- the plan!" he shouted, before turning about to look at the Persona users. His blank-eyed stare was now one of disheveled anger and desperation. "Do you understand the damage you brats have- that I have to clean up? If you had just played by the rules, we might have- this whole mess! I'll have to reset the wh- all over again! We're running- of time!"

The static became too prevalent to understand, and the screen disappeared. Dave and the others looked at each other with concern.

"Gamzee, can you hold the fort down here?" Dave called back.

Gamzee flung another mannequin creature off of the ramparts. "No confidence, huh bro? Me and the other homies got this. Go do your thing!" he called back.

Dave looked back at his three friends for one last look of confirmation. The three of them nodded almost in unison, and proceeded up to the sixth floor of the ramparts.

* * *

As they reached the sixth floor, Dave paused for a moment as he looked into the room through one of Dirk's trademark wall-holes. It looked vastly different from the other floors; instead of a room or location from their journey months prior, this room was entirely different. 

"This feels like the Velvet Room." he observed. He began to step in, only for John to tug on his sleeve.

"Dave, we need to keep going! Everyone else is fighting for us, we have to-"

Dave held up a hand. "Just hold on. I trust everyone else to take care of themselves. There might be something important in here. It's... too similar to be a coincidence." he explained, before walking in.

The room was that of a throne room, draped in the lovely velvet shade that gave the Velvet Room its namesake. However, the room had the appearance of one abandoned for hundreds of years. Long-since-extinguished sconces laid collapsed on the floor, curtains were deteriorating, and there was a thick layer of dust all over everything.

One thing that Dave noted in the mess was a table, covered in a velvet cloth, and atop this table was a foggy crystal ball. It was all too similar to...

"Igor." Dave mumbled. "Holy shit, this was a Velvet Room. Hussie's Velvet Room."

Rose stepped in from behind him. "Excuse me? Do you mean-"

"He must have been just like me. A Wild Card." Dave muttered. "This room must be a reconstruction of his Velvet Room. Igor said that it was different for each guest. Just... how long ago did he have to go through his journey-thing? My Velvet Room was like a club lounge, but this... it's right out of King Arthur."

"No way." John refuted. "Hussie would have to be hundreds of years old."

Jade was the last to speak. "I don't know... I mean, this place is already reality-defying enough. Is it really so hard to believe that he's just been alive this whole time?"

"But why? Igor never mentioned anything about me being immortal. That can't be what happens, right?" Dave asked.

No one could answer. They stood in silence for a moment, until they heard footsteps. The group instinctively drew their weapons to face whatever approached, but were surprised to see Ms. Paint. However, she was lacking her fair skin and blonde hair; her skin was a completely pale alabaster, and her hair had almost completely fallen out.

"Wait. You're the woman from the screens. You were there with Hussie." Dave observed as he dismissed his sword. "You were... what happened to you? What happened to all of you?"

Ms. Paint coughed before being able to muster up the words. "You... are partly correct. Andrew, myself, and I... when we were known by different names... we were just like you. We used the power of Persona to combat a great evil. Times were very different. It was almost... 700 years ago."

"700? You guys are from the middle ages?" Jade asked.

"Near the end of them, in or around the 1300's." Rose clarified. "Just how have you stayed alive all this time? For that matter, why have we never seen you with our gracious host? He posed as a janitor at our school, but you... this place is the first place we have seen you."

Again Ms. Paint coughed. Dave made the saddened comparison between Ms. Paint and a late-stage cancer patient. "We... we couldn't defeat our enemy. The negative emotions of humanity during the plague made it... made it too strong. Instead of letting it roam free, we sealed the monster... we sealed Ouroboros in the sea of souls, using our own life energies to keep it at bay. All this time, we have watched... watched it try to climb the tower and reform itself over and over again, only for us to sacrifice another one of our number to reset the process to the beginning..."

"The plague." Rose repeated. "The 1300's... she means the black death. The Masque of the Red Death was inferred to be written about tuberculosis, but it has always been theorized that the titular villain was a metaphor for the Bubonic plague as well."

Dave looked at Rose. "Wait, Masque of the Red Death? You mean the book about the rooms with different colors and- Wait. Shit." he mumbled. "I can't believe I didn't catch that."

"All is falling into place, then." Rose continued. "That still leaves many concerns, however. You say you have watched for 700 years. Has the seal kept you alive all this time? Maintaining it, watching it?"

Ms. Paint nodded slowly.

"And this 'Ouroboros' sounds tantamount to our great enemy from the prior months... Hemera. You said it climbs the tower, over and over, only for someone to reset the process all over again. What becomes of the person that does this?"

Ms. Paint hacked for a few moments, then looked back up at Rose. "You... you look upon what becomes of us. Andrew and I... we were two of a group of six Persona users. However... we knew that the life essence of only seven warriors could only hold the creature for so long... so... we took in plague victims whose only other destination was the grave. They took the brunt of the first sacrifices, but... over seven hundred years, we began to run out of life essence. We began to use the life essence of the original six... our friends. They became some of the strongest mannequin creatures that guard and haunt the inner workings of the tower... The Peregrine Mendicant, the Wayward Vagabond, the Aimless Renegade, the Windswept Questant... in his madness and my fading memory, Andrew and I have forgotten the names of our closest friends, and now only know them as these fanciful, meaningless titles..."

She paused, looking up at Dave and the others. "And now... I am next. Andrew will be the last. Once he gives himself up to the seal... it will be broken once more. Ouroboros will descend upon humanity."

Rose continued to speak in an investigative tone, though it was clear to those who knew her best that the sad story was getting to her. "But... why did you commit to such a task knowing that in the end, it would be for nothing? What have you been looking for in the meantime? Why are we here?"

Ms. Paint sighed. It was unclear if it was from pain or relief. "We waited so long because... we were waiting for a Persona user that could best the beast, to defeat it forever. Andrew has gone from place to place, time to time, but he was always far too picky, too paranoid. Even when the children facing the threats in Japan proved to be some of the strongest of us, he refused. Too much reliance on the power of their comrades, he would say... But in the end, he settled on you. You, and your friends."

"Is that why we're here to fight each other? To weed out whichever of us is the strongest?" John asked. "So that one of us could fight Ouroboros... on our own? But why? We're far stronger together."

"I wish I could convince him..." Ms. Paint managed to speak in between coughs. "Alas... he is set in his ways, and he is far too powerful for me to stop. The only thing I can do... is give you children as much time as I can. Ouroboros will reach the top of the tower soon, and Andrew will reset this realm for the last time. You will all be trapped here forever... perhaps as he tries to use you as his final pawns to keep the cycle going."

Dave shook his head. "Like hell. We're going to stop him, and get you out of here before this kills you." he affirmed, turning about to leave. Rose and John followed, but Jade called for them.

"Wait." she spoke. "How will we know Ouroboros when we see it? Is it some sort of huge creature?" she asked.

Ms. Paint coughed again, barely holding herself up on her own two feet. "To keep its power as pacified as possible... Andrew split it into two beings long ago. Calliope and Caliborn walk these halls, seeking each other but not knowing why... if they meet, Andrew will be forced to reset this place, or destroy the seal..."

Dave stopped. "So they're the big creature. Huh... figures. If they're crazy powerful on their own, then they'll be tough to take down together." he muttered. "Still, I have confidence in the others. We've been through big shit in the past, and this is nothing. Just imagine if Hussie was letting us fight at our full potential. I would've swept the place with Caliborn." he bragged for a bit, before returning to a serious tone. "Look, uh... Ms. Paint, right? We'll make this right. Just trust us, alright?"

Ms. Paint nodded slowly. "That is all I can do... Please, be careful... but be swift."

Dave nodded. "Come on, guys. I'm not about to be trapped here for eternity. I have TV shows to watch."

* * *

Dirk pushed forward with a massive force from the Persona Compendium, blasting a hole in the seventh floor of the tower. The blackness within was tinged with shades of red that illuminated parts of the room. 

"Now to stop those two little green things... and put an end to this." he mumbled to himself. "But... where are they? They should be here by now."

From within the dark room, a voice called out. "Now, now, that would be telling." called the voice that Dirk knew to belong to Hussie. Out stepped the mad 'janitor', this time dressed in black robes that covered all but his face. "I'm not about to let the Velvets ruin what I've planned for so long. Don't you know what will happen if you don't let me do what I have to do?"

"All I know is that you've been messing with the sea of souls. That isn't your job, buddy, it's ours. Whatever happens will happen for a reason. That's always been the rules." Dirk spat back. He summoned his katana in his left hand and pointed it at his to-be opponent. "Whether it's you or those two little weird guys... I'm not going to let any of this happen."

Hussie grinned and lifted his hands. In one hand appeared a quarterstaff, and in the other floated a card that Dirk knew to be The Fool. Lastly, a mask materialized on Hussie's face; that of a plague doctor, with a large beak and empty voids for eye sockets. "Why don't you try to stop me?" he taunted before crushing the Persona card in his left hand. "Come, Orobas Prime!" he shouted, summoning his persona. Behind Hussie appeared a large, bipedal horse outfitted in regal armor. The way it moved was slightly disturbing, to say the least, but it adequately illustrated Hussie's growing madness.

Dirk threw open the compendium and called forth his ace-in-the-hole. "Come now, Ozymandias!" he shouted, summoning his trusted Persona that he held in life. Ozymandias appeared as it did before; an elderly king presiding over the battlefield in his floating throne.

After a moment of staring at each other to size one another up, Dirk and Hussie launched at each other to fight over the very fate of the Velvet Tower.

 


End file.
